The imperfect in Italian is mainly used to:
make descriptions of the past
talk about habitual actions in the past
set the scene in the past
In English, it has many equivalents. For example, giocavo would usually be translated as “I used to play” or “I was playing,” but it could even be translated as “I played.”
Unlike the other past tenses, like passato prossimo (e.g. ho giocato meaning I've played), or passato remoto (e.g. giocai meaning I played), an action in the imperfect doesn’t have a definite beginning or end. The imperfect is a very useful tense and is super simple to form; all the verbs have the same endings, and it has very few irregular verbs.
Let’s start our “story” as all Italian fairy tales begin: C’era una volta… meaning Once upon a time there was… and let's meet the imperfetto! Ready?
How to form the ‘imperfetto’ in Italian?
The imperfect tense is one of the easiest to conjugate. Most of the verbs are regular, but there are still a few irregular ones to learn. Let’s start with the regular verbs.
Regular verbs
To form the imperfetto of regular verbs, just start with the infinitive form, drop the infinitive ending (-are / -ere / -ire), and add the imperfect endings in the table below.
| Subject Pronoun | -are | -ere | -ire |
|---|---|---|---|
io | compravo | credevo | dormivo |
tu | compravi | credevi | dormivi |
lui/lei/Lei | comprava | credeva | dormiva |
noi | compravamo | credevamo | dormivamo |
voi | compravate | credevate | dormivate |
loro | compravano | credevano | dormivano |
However, here’s a cool trick I learned from my grade school teacher:
Only drop the -re from the infinitive ending, leave the first vowel (a, e, i).
Add -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, -vano across the three conjugations and… Ecco fatto! meaning Here you are! you have it! The endings are all the same!
Here are a few examples of the three verbs we saw above in sentences:
Irregular verbs
Guess what? Our friendly imperfetto has only a few irregular verbs! The “usual suspect”: essere meaning to be is the "real" irregular one!
| Pronoun | essere | Translation |
|---|---|---|
io | ero | I was / used to be |
tu | eri | You were / used to be |
lui/lei/Lei | era | He/she was / used to be |
noi | eravamo | We were / used to be |
voi | eravate | You were / used to be |
loro | erano | They were / used to be |
Now, look at these three commonly-used verbs that “remember” their Latin origin in the imperfect! Rather than using their usual Italian infinitive as their base, they seem to be using the Latin infinitive instead!
| Italian infinitive | Latin infinitive | Imperfetto |
|---|---|---|
dire Translation: to say, to tell | dicere |
|
fare Translation: to do, to make | facere |
|
bere Translation: to drink | bevere |
|
Notice that, apart from this change to the stem, they just follow the -ere regular form. Pretty cool, huh? For more verbs with irregular stems in the imperfect check out our tables!
When to use the imperfect in Italian?
We use l’imperfetto meaning the imperfect when we are talking about the past, but this tense in Italian does not correspond to just one English past tense. Indeed, io facevo might be translated as “I did,” “I was doing,” “I used to do,” or “I would do.” Let's see when to use it!
To describe what things were like in the past
Making descriptions of the past is one of the most common uses of the imperfect.
Let's say you want to talk about your childhood: how your friends were, how nice (or not 😉) they were, what you were wearing, what you were doing everyday, what the school was like, or what the teachers were like. In this situation, you need to use the imperfect:
When the duration is the focus
Use the imperfect when the action that you are describing has no specific beginning or end but you are considering its duration, how it lasts in time.
For past habits
We use the imperfect when talking about actions that occurred habitually.
For an action that was ongoing at a particular past moment
We often use the imperfect for two or more actions happening simultaneously in the past, or for an ongoing action during a particular time, you would also use the imperfect. Let’s see some examples:
For interrupted ongoing actions
When an ongoing actions is interrupted by another action or moment, we use the imperfect for the ongoing action and one of the perfect tenses (passato prossimo or passato remoto) for the interrupting event:
The imperfect tense is used to set the scene (you are making a description of “how things were” in the past).
The perfect tense is used for a sudden & single action.
Here’s an example:
To describe past emotions or thoughts
When describing people's past emotions/thoughts with verbs such as sembrare meaning to seem, credere meaning to believe, sperare meaning to hope, pensare meaning to think, we use the imperfect:
- Sembravano felici e contenti.Translation: They seemed happy and content.
- Recentemente pensavo spesso a loro.Translation: Recently, I have been thinking often about them.
To make a polite request
To make a polite request, you can use the imperfect as an alternative to the present conditional:
To sum up
Here are some things to take away from this article:
To form the imperfect, remember two steps:
Drop -re but leave the "root-vowel" (a, e, i) in the infinitive.
Add -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, -vano across the three conjugations -are/-ere/-ire.
The verb essere is irregular (ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano).
The verbs dire, fare, bere are also irregular, but only in the form of the stem, not the endings (dicevo, facevi, beveva, etc.)
Use the imperfect when:
you are describing things that routinely happened, or emotions in the past;
you want to set the scene in the past;
you are describing something that was happening over a period of time with no definite beginning or end;
you want to mention two things happening simultaneously;
you want to talk about an ongoing interrupted action.
Remember, the imperfect is different from the passato prossimo/passato remoto as these tenses are for actions that happened at a definite moment in the past.
Ready to practice the imperfetto? Check out our activities!
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