The imperfect, often inaccurately called the imperfect tense in the classical grammars of several Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...

, denotes a grammatical combination of past tense

Past tense

The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...

 and imperfective aspect

Imperfective aspect

The imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...

, and so may be more precisely called past imperfective. In English, the term refers a form of the verb that combines past tense with similar aspects, such as incomplete, continuous, habitual, or coincident with another action.

Etymology

"Imperfect" comes from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

  "unfinished", because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action. The Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 term was paratatikós "prolonged".

English

In English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, the imperfect or past continuous tense is manifested in the verb phrases:

• "I was eating...."
• "I used to eat...."

"Eating" and "eat" are non-finite verb

Non-finite verb

In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...

s used to complete the sentences above. Although these non-finite verbs show the action in the sentence, they themselves do not have tense. The tense is indicated by the form of "to be" ("was") or the phrase "used to." The imperfect is contrasted with the simple past tense, in this case "I ate...."

"Would" can also be used for the imperfect. In the sentence "Back then, I would eat early and would walk to school...." In this context, "would" signifies not the conditional mood

Conditional mood

In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...

, but rather repeated past actions of imperfect in English, and one must use care when translating to other languages.

In modern linguistics, and especially in TEFL contexts, it is more commonly referred to as the "past continuous" or the "past progressive" tense.

Latin

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	parāre	docēre	legere	capere	scīre	esse
ego	parābam	docēbam	legēbam	capiēbam	sciēbam	eram
tū	parābās	docēbas	legēbās	capiēbās	sciēbās	erās
is	parābat	docēbat	legēbat	capiēbat	sciēbat	erat
nōs	parābāmus	docēbāmus	legēbāmus	capiēbāmus	sciēbāmus	erāmus
vōs	parābātis	docēbātis	legēbātis	capiēbātis	sciēbātis	erātis
eī	parābant	docēbant	legēbant	capiēbant	sciēbant	erant

Notes:

• The imperfect is signified by the signs ba and ebā.
• The imperfect forms of esse are used as auxiliary verbs in the pluperfect of the passive voice along with perfect passive participles.

In Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

, the imperfect is generally a past tense. Its uses include representing:

• Repetition and continuity: an action that was happening, used to happen, or happened regularly in the past, as it was ongoing
• A description of people, things, or conditions of the past
• A time in the past
• A relation between past happenings: a situation that was in progress in the past or a condition originated in a previous time, when another isolated and important event occurred (the first verb, indicating the status in progress or condition from the past using the imperfect, while the latter uses the preterite
  Preterite
  The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
  
  ).
• A physical or mental state or condition in progress in the past. Often used with verbs of being, emotion, capability, or conscience. The following verbs are often used in the imperfect in several Romance languages:

{|class="wikitable"

!English equivalent || French || Spanish || Italian || Portuguese || Romanian
|--
|to love || aimer || amar || amare || amar || iubire
|--
|to desire || désirer || desear || desiderare || desejar || dorire
|--
|to want || vouloir || querer || volere || querer || vrere
|--
|to prefer || préférer || preferir || preferire || preferir || preferare
|--
|to hope || espérer || esperar || sperare || esperar || sperare
|--
|to feel || sentir || sentir || sentire || sentir || simțire
|--
|to regret/lament || regretter || lamentar || rimpiangere || lamentar || regretare
|--
|to be || être || ser/estar || essere || ser/estar || fire
|--
|to be able to || pouvoir || poder || potere || poder || putere
|--
|to be familiar with || connaître || conocer || conoscere || conhecer || cunoaștere
|--
|to know (as a fact) || savoir || saber || sapere || saber || știre
|--
|to believe || croire || creer || credere || acreditar || credere
|--
|to think || penser || pensar || pensare || pensar || gândire
|--
|to imagine || imaginer || imaginar || immaginare || imaginar || imaginare
|--
|to stand/stay ||rester || quedar || stare || ficar/estar || stare
|}

A common mistake of beginners learning a Romance language is putting too much emphasis on whether the time the action occurred is known. This generally does not affect how the imperfect is used. For example, the sentence "Someone ate all of my cookies." (when translated) is not a good candidate for the imperfect. Fundamentally, it is no different from the sentence "We ate all the cookies." Note this fails the repeatability requirement of the imperfect, as it is only known to have happened once. On the other hand, the sentence "I used to have fun in the 1960s." is a good candidate for the imperfect, even though its period is known. In short, knowing when an action occurred is not nearly as important as how long it occurred (or was and still is occurring).

French

To form the imperfect for French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 regular verbs, take the present tense e.g. "nous
" (we) form, subtract the -ons ending, and add the appropriate ending (but the forms for être, whose "nous" form does not end in -ons, are formed differently):

je	-ais
tu	-ais
il	-ait
nous	-ions
vous	-iez
ils	-aient

Examples:

	parler	choisir	vendre	être	commencer	manger	étudier
je	parlais	choisissais	vendais	étais	commençais	mangeais	étudiais
tu	parlais	choisissais	vendais	étais	commençais	mangeais	étudiais
il	parlait	choisissait	vendait	était	commençait	mangeait	étudiait
nous	parlions	choisissions	vendions	étions	commencions	mangions	étudiions
vous	parliez	choisissiez	vendiez	étiez	commenciez	mangiez	étudiiez
ils	parlaient	choisissaient	vendaient	étaient	commençaient	mangeaient	étudiaient

Notes:

• Verbs that terminate in a stem of -cer and -ger undergo minor orthographic changes to preserve the phonetic sound or allophone. Verbs whose root terminates in the letter "i" maintain the letter despite the consecutiveness in the "nous" and "vous" forms.

Italian

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	avere	essere	parlare	credere	finire	dire	opporre
io	avevo	ero	parlavo	credevo	finivo	dicevo	opponevo
tu	avevi	eri	parlavi	credevi	finivi	dicevi	opponevi
lui	aveva	era	parlava	credeva	finiva	diceva	opponeva
noi	avevamo	eravamo	parlavamo	credevamo	finivamo	dicevamo	opponevamo
voi	avevate	eravate	parlavate	credevate	finivate	dicevate	opponevate
loro	avevano	erano	parlavano	credevano	finivano	dicevano	opponevano

Notes:

• Dropping the -re suffix and adding -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, and -vano form verbs.
• There is only one irregular verb in the imperfect: essere.
• Although dire and opporre may seem irregular, they are a part of a verb family that has stronger roots to Latin equivalents. Other verbs include fare, bere, and ridurre.
• There is another imperfect in Italian formed by combining the imperfect of the verb stare (stavo, stavi, stava, stavamo, stavate, stavano) with the gerund. For example, "parlavo" could be said as "stavo parlando". The difference is similar to the difference between "I eat" and "I am eating" in English. However, English does not make this distinction in the imperfect.

Romanian

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	cânta(re)	crede(re)	plăcea (plăcere)	dormi(re)	fi(re)
eu	cântam	credeam	plăceam	dormeam	eram
tu	cântai	credeai	plăceai	dormeai	erai
el/ea	cânta	credea	plăcea	dormea	era
noi	cântam	credeam	plăceam	dormeam	eram
voi	cântați	credeați	plăceați	dormeați	erați
ei	cântau	credeau	plăceau	dormeau	erau

Notes:

• The imperfect is formed from the short infinitive form of the verbs (without the -re suffix) combined with the -am, -ai, -a, -am, -ați, and -au endings.
• Short infintives ending in „-a” (1st conjugation) don't double this letter: e.g. "pleca” in the first person singular is "plecam" and not "plecaam").
• Short infinitives ending in "-i" take the pattern of those ending in "-e" (e.g. dormi becomes dormeam in 1st person imperfect), while short infintives ending in "-î" take the pattern of those ending in "-a" (e.g. hotărî becomes hotăram in 1st person imperfect).
• There is only one irregular verb in the imperfect: a fi, that is created from the radical era-, instead of fi-.

Spanish

In Spanish, the imperfect can be called the imperfecto or the copretérito. Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	hablar	comer	insistir	ir	ser	ver
yo	hablaba	comía	insistía	iba	era	veía
tú	hablabas	comías	insistías	ibas	eras	veías
él	hablaba	comía	insistía	iba	era	veía
nosotros	hablábamos	comíamos	insistíamos	íbamos	éramos	veíamos
vosotros	hablabais	comíais	insistíais	ibais	erais	veíais
ellos	hablaban	comían	insistían	iban	eran	veían

• There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect: ir, ser, and ver. Historically, ir — unlike other Spanish "-ir verbs" — failed to drop the -b- of the Latin imperfect. The imperfect of ser is likewise a continuation of the Latin imperfect (of esse), with the same stem appearing in tú eres (thanks to pre-classical Latin rhotacism
  Rhotacism
  Rhotacism refers to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r :*the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;...
  
  ). And the imperfect of ver (veía etc.) was regular in Old Spanish
  Old Spanish language
  Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian or Mediaeval Spanish , is an early form of the Spanish language that was spoken on the Iberian Peninsula from the tenth century until roughly the beginning of the fifteenth century, before a consonantic readjustment gave rise to the evolution of modern...
  
  , where the infinitive veer provided the stem ve-.

• The first person singular and third person singular forms are the same for all verbs; thus, in cases of ambiguity where context is insufficient, a pronoun
  Pronoun
  In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
  
   or subject noun is included for the sake of clarification.

Portuguese

In Portuguese, the imperfect indicative, called "pretérito imperfeito", is quite similar to Spanish. However, is important to remember that in the informal Brazilian Portuguese, the pronouns "tu" and vós" are often replaced respectively by "você" and "vocês", and then the verb is conjugated like the third person.

	cantar	bater	partir	pôr
eu	cantava	batia	partia	punha
tu	cantavas	batias	partias	punhas
ele/você	cantava	batia	partia	punha
nós	cantávamos	batíamos	partíamos	púnhamos
vós	cantáveis	batíeis	partíeis	púnheis
eles/vocês	cantavam	batiam	partiam	punham

Persian

Like all other past tenses, imperfect is conjugated regularly for all verbs. Formation: [preverb] + mi- + past stem + past ending

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative

	raftan (to go)	kâr kardan (to work)
1st sg.	miraftam	kâr mikardam

Slavic languages

Most Slavic languages have lost the imperfect, however it is preserved in Bulgarian and Macedonian. It is also officially retained in Serbo-Croatian but considered old-fashioned and restricted to older literature, poetic and stylistic reasons.

Turkish

Turkish has separate tenses for past continuous and imperfect.
To form the past continuous tense for Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 verbs, after removing the infinitive suffix (-mek or -mak), take the present continuous tense suffix "-yor" without personal suffixes, and add the ending for the simple past plus the appropriate personal suffix:

ben	-yordum
sen	-yordun
o	-yordu
biz	-yorduk
siz	-yordunuz
onlar	-yorlardı

Examples:

	gelmek	gitmek	ağlamak	beklemek	toplamak	söylemek	satmak
ben	geliyordum	gidiyordum	ağlıyordum	bekliyordum	topluyordum	söylüyordum	satıyordum
sen	geliyordun	gidiyordun	ağlıyordun	bekliyordun	topluyordun	söylüyordun	satıyordun
o	geliyordu	gidiyordu	ağlıyordu	bekliyordu	topluyordu	söylüyordu	satıyordu
biz	geliyorduk	gidiyorduk	ağlıyorduk	bekliyorduk	topluyorduk	söylüyorduk	satıyorduk
siz	geliyordunuz	gidiyordunuz	ağlıyordunuz	bekliyordunuz	topluyordunuz	söylüyordunuz	satıyordunuz
onlar	geliyorlardı	gidiyorlardı	ağlıyorlardı	bekliyorlardı	topluyorlardı	söylüyorlardı	satıyorlardı

Notes:

• As "-du"(which has a rounded back vowel) succeeds "-lar"(which has an unrounded back vowel) instead of "-yor"(which has a rounded back vowel) when the subject is the third person plural "onlar", it becomes "-dı"(which has an unrounded back vowel).
• If a verb ends in "t", it may change into "d". (Especially gitmek and etmek)
• If a verb ends in open vowels ("a" or "e"), the open vowels become closed while adding "-yor" (because of the closed auxiliary vowel "-i-".)

  "a" becomes "ı" if the preceding vowel is unrounded, "u" if it is rounded (ağla -> ağlıyor, topla -> topluyor)

  "e" becomes "i" if the preceding vowel is unrounded, "ü" if it is rounded (bekle -> bekliyor, söyle -> söylüyor)

• If the verb ends in a consonant, the auxiliary vowel "-i-" must be added before "-yor". It becomes "-ı-", "-u-" or "-ü-" depending on the frontness and roundedness of the preceding vowel, because of the vowel harmony:

  "-i" if the preceding vowel is "e" or "i"(front unrounded): gel -> geliyor

  "-ı" if the preceding vowel is "a" or "ı"(back unrounded): bak -> bakıyor

  "-u" if the preceding vowel is "o" or "u"(back rounded): kork -> korkuyor

  "-ü" if the preceding vowel is "ö" or "ü"(front rounded): gör -> görüyor

• "r" of "-yor" may be dropped in colloquial speech.

To form the negative of the past continuous tense, the negation suffix "-ma/-me", which becomes "-mi", "-mı", "-mu", or "-mü" because of the closed auxiliary vowel and the vowel harmony, must be added before "-yor".

Examples:

	gelmek	gitmek	ağlamak	beklemek	toplamak	söylemek	satmak
ben	gelmiyordum	gitmiyordum	ağlamıyordum	beklemiyordum	toplamıyordum	söylemiyordum	satmıyordum
sen	gelmiyordun	gitmiyordun	ağlamıyordun	beklemiyordun	toplamıyordun	söylemiyordun	satmıyordun
o	gelmiyordu	gitmiyordu	ağlamıyordu	beklemiyordu	toplamıyordu	söylemiyordu	satmıyordu
biz	gelmiyorduk	gitmiyorduk	ağlamıyorduk	beklemiyorduk	toplamıyorduk	söylemiyorduk	satmıyorduk
siz	gelmiyordunuz	gitmiyordunuz	ağlamıyordunuz	beklemiyordunuz	toplamıyordunuz	söylemiyordunuz	satmıyordunuz
onlar	gelmiyorlardı	gitmiyorlardı	ağlamıyorlardı	beklemiyorlardı	toplamıyorlardı	söylemiyorlardı	satmıyorlardı

Notes:

• The negation suffix "-ma/me" is:

  "-mi" if the preceding vowel is "e" or "i"(front unrounded): gel -> gelmiyor

  "-mı" if the preceding vowel is "a" or "ı"(back unrounded): bak -> bakmıyor

  "-mu" if the preceding vowel is "o" or "u"(back rounded): kork -> korkmuyor

  "-mü" if the preceding vowel is "ö" or "ü"(front rounded): gör -> görmüyor

• As "-du"(which has a rounded back vowel) succeeds "-lar"(which has an unrounded back vowel) instead of "-yor"(which has a rounded back vowel) when the subject is the third person plural "onlar", it becomes "-dı"(which has an unrounded back vowel).

To form the interrogative of the past continuous tense, after adding "-yor", add the question "suffix" "-mu", which is written as if it was a separate word even though it's not counted as one. "-du" and the personal suffixes are added to the question "suffix", not to "-yor":

ben	muydum?
sen	muydun?
o	muydu?
biz	muyduk?
siz	muydunuz?
onlar	-lar mıydı

Examples:

	gelmek	gitmek	ağlamak	beklemek	toplamak	söylemek	satmak
ben	geliyor muydum?	gidiyor muydum?	ağlıyor muydum?	bekliyor muydum?	topluyor muydum?	söylüyor muydum?	satıyor muydum?
sen	geliyor muydun?	gidiyor muydun?	ağlıyor muydun?	bekliyor muydun?	topluyor muydun?	söylüyor muydun?	satıyor muydun?
o	geliyor muydu?	gidiyor muydu?	ağlıyor muydu?	bekliyor muydu?	topluyor muydu?	söylüyor muydu?	satıyor muydu?
biz	geliyor muyduk?	gidiyor muyduk?	ağlıyor muyduk?	bekliyor muyduk?	topluyor muyduk?	söylüyor muyduk?	satıyor muyduk?
siz	geliyor muydunuz?	gidiyor muydunuz?	ağlıyor muydunuz?	bekliyor muydunuz?	topluyor muydunuz?	söylüyor muydunuz?	satıyor muydunuz?
onlar	geliyorlar mıydı?	gidiyorlar mıydı?	ağlıyorlar mıydı?	bekliyorlar mıydı?	topluyorlar mıydı?	söylüyorlar mıydı?	satıyorlar mıydı?

Notes:

• The epenthetic consonant "y" is inserted between "-mu" and "-du".
• As "-mu" and "-du"(which have a rounded back vowel) succeeds "-lar"(which has an unrounded back vowel) instead of "-yor"(which has a rounded back vowel) when the subject is the third person plural "onlar", they become "-mı" and "-dı"(which have an unrounded back vowel).

Semitic languages

Semitic languages do not have an imperfect, but the terms 'perfect' and 'imperfect' are commonly seen for imperfective and perfective.

Malayalam

In Malayalam (verbs are never conjugated for grammatical person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

, which is indicated by a pronoun), there are two indicative imperfects, corresponding exactly with English:

1 -ഉകയായിരുന്നു (ukayāyirunnu) endings (... was...), for example:

ഓടുകയായിരുന്നു (ōṭukayāyirunnu) ... was running

2 -ഉമായിരുന്നു (umāyirunnu) endings (... used to ...), for example:

ഓടുമായിരുന്നു (ōṭumāyirunnu) ... used to run

• To form the "was doing" imperfect, take the infinitive ending in ഉക (uka), for example ഓടുക (ōṭuka) - to run - and add the ending - യായിരുന്നു (yāyirunnu).

• To form the "used to do" imperfect, take off the ക (ka) from the end of the "uka" form and add മായിരുന്നു (māyirunnu) in its stead.

To make a verb in the imperfect negative, add അല്ല് (all) after the ഉകയ (ukaya) part of the ending for the "was doing" imperfect. For example, ഓടുകയല്ലായിരുന്നു (ōṭukayallāyirunnu) (...was not running). To do the same for the "used to do" imperfect, take off the ഉമ (uma) from the ending and add അത്തില്ല (attilla) instead. For example, ഓടത്തില്ലായിരുന്നു (ōṭattillāyirunnu) (...didn't use to run)