Indicativo imperfetto

The imperfetto (imperfect) is a past tense which is used to say what was happening, what used to happen and what things were like in the past.

Verbi regolari

The imperfetto of regular verbs is formed by:

• dropping the –re of the infinitive
• adding the following set of endings to verbs of all conjugations:

Verbi irregolari

Good news! Very few verbs are irregular in the imperfetto. The following are the most common:

• The verb essere

• The verbs bere (to drink), dire (to say), fare (to do, to make), and verbs in -urre* such as tradurre (to translate) use the following stems: bere (< bevere) → beve-, dire (< dicere) → dice-, fare (< facere) → face-, tradurre (< traducere) → traduc– :

* Other verbs like tradurre are condurre (to conduct) and produrre (to produce). They both follow the same transformation: condurre → conduc- ; produrre → produc-.

Uso dell’imperfetto

• The imperfetto is used:

1. 1. to say what used to happen or what people used to do in the past (habitual action = past tense, or used to or would + verb in English):

Giocava a calcio con gli amici la domenica.
He used to play soccer with his friends on Sundays.

Andavo a scuola a piedi tutti i giorni.
I used to walk to school every day.

1. 2. to say what was going on (action in progress = was/were + ing):

Guardavamo la partita quando è arrivata.
We were watching the match when she arrived.

Mia sorella dormiva mentre guardavo la TV.
My sister was sleeping while I was watching TV.

1. 3. to describe how people were, what people felt, knew or meant in the past, what things were like (conditions such as time, weather, and age):

Quando ero bambina ero sempre allegra.
When I was a child, I was always happy.

I miei genitori sapevano che avevo paura del buio.
My parents knew that I was scared of the dark.

• The imperfetto is also used to indicate for how long or since when something had been going on:

– Da quanto tempo erano sposati?                
  How long had they been married?

– Erano sposati da quando avevano 20 anni.
  They had been married since they were twenty.

– Da quanto tempo vivevano lì?
  How long had they lived there?

– Erano due mesi che vivevano lì.
  They had lived there for two months.