Imperfect


The imperfect is a verb form which combines past tense and imperfective aspect. It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to walk". It contrasts with preterite forms, which refer to a single completed event in the past.
Traditionally, the imperfect of languages such as Latin and French is referred to as one of the tenses, although it actually encodes aspectual information in addition to tense. It may be more precisely called past imperfective.
English has no general imperfective and expresses it in different ways. The term "imperfect" in English refers to forms much more commonly called past progressive or past continuous. These are combinations of past tense with specifically continuous or progressive aspect. In German, Imperfekt formerly referred to the simply conjugated past tense, but the term Präteritum is now preferred, since the form does not carry any implication of imperfective aspect.
"Imperfect" comes from the Latin imperfectus "unfinished", because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action. The equivalent Ancient Greek term was paratatikós "prolonged".

Indo-European languages

English

Imperfect meanings in English are expressed in different ways depending on whether the event is continuous or habitual.
For a continuous action, the past progressive form is used, as in "I was eating"; "They were running fast." However certain verbs that express state rather than action do not mark the progressive aspect ; in these cases the simple past tense is used instead: "He was hungry"; "We knew what to do next."
Habitual action in the past can be marked by used to, as in "I used to eat a lot", or by the auxiliary verb would, as in "Back then, I would eat early and would walk to school." However, in many cases the habitual nature of the action does not need to be explicitly marked on the verb, and the simple past is used: "We always ate dinner at six o'clock."

Romance languages

Latin

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
parāredocērelegerecaperescīreesse
egoparābamdocēbamlegēbamcapiēbamsciēbameram
tūparābāsdocēbaslegēbāscapiēbāssciēbāserās
isparābatdocēbatlegēbatcapiēbatsciēbaterat
nōsparābāmusdocēbāmuslegēbāmuscapiēbāmussciēbāmuserāmus
vōsparābātisdocēbātislegēbātiscapiēbātissciēbātiserātis
eīparābantdocēbantlegēbantcapiēbantsciēbanterant

Notes:
In Romance languages, the imperfect is generally a past tense. Its uses include representing:
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." 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.

French

To form the imperfect for French regular verbs, take the first person plural present tense, the "nous" form, subtract the -ons suffix, and add the appropriate ending :
je-ais
tu-ais
il-ait
nous-ions
vous-iez
ils-aient

Examples:
parlerchoisirvendreêtrecommencermangerétudier
jeparlaischoisissaisvendaisétaiscommençaismangeaisétudiais
tuparlaischoisissaisvendaisétaiscommençaismangeaisétudiais
ilparlaitchoisissaitvendaitétaitcommençaitmangeaitétudiait
nousparlionschoisissionsvendionsétionscommencionsmangionsétudiions
vousparliezchoisissiezvendiezétiezcommenciezmangiezétudiiez
ilsparlaientchoisissaientvendaientétaientcommençaientmangeaientétudiaient

Usage:
1. Habitual actions or states of being
2. Physical and emotional descriptions: time, weather, age, feelings
3. Actions or states of an unspecified duration
4. Background information in conjunction with the passé composé
5. Wishes or suggestions
6. Conditions in "si" clauses
7. The expressions être en train de and venir de in the past
Notes:
Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
avereessereparlarecrederefiniredireopporre
ioavevoeroparlavocredevofinivodicevoopponevo
tuavevieriparlavicredevifinividiceviopponevi
luiavevaeraparlavacredevafinivadicevaopponeva
noiavevamoeravamoparlavamocredevamofinivamodicevamoopponevamo
voiavevateeravateparlavatecredevatefinivatedicevateopponevate
loroavevanoeranoparlavanocredevanofinivanodicevanoopponevano

Notes:
Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
cântacredeplăcea dormifi
eucântamcredeamplăceamdormeameram
tucântaicredeaiplăceaidormeaierai
el/eacântacredeaplăceadormeaera
noicântamcredeamplăceamdormeameram
voicântațicredeațiplăceațidormeațierați
eicântaucredeauplăceaudormeauerau

Notes:
In Spanish, the imperfect can be called the imperfecto or the copretérito. Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
hablarcomerinsistirirserver
yohablabacomíainsistíaibaeraveía
túhablabascomíasinsistíasibaserasveías
élhablabacomíainsistíaibaeraveía
nosotroshablábamoscomíamosinsistíamosíbamoséramosveíamos
vosotroshablabaiscomíaisinsistíaisibaiseraisveíais
elloshablabancomíaninsistíanibaneranveían

In Portuguese, the imperfect indicative, called "pretérito imperfeito", is quite similar to Spanish:
cantarbaterpartirpôrsertervir
eucantavabatiapartiapunhaeratinhavinha
tucantavasbatiaspartiaspunhaserastinhasvinhas
ele/ela/vocêcantavabatiapartiapunhaeratinhavinha
nóscantávamosbatíamospartíamospúnhamoséramostínhamosvínhamos
vóscantáveisbatíeispartíeispúnheiséreistínheisvínheis
eles/elas/vocêscantavambatiampartiampunhameramtinhamvinham

There are four irregular verbs: "pôr", "ser", "ter" and "vir". Unlike in Spanish, the verbs "ver" and "ir" are regular in the Portuguese imperfect.
Like in Italian, it is also commonly formed by combining the imperfect of the verb estar with the gerund. In Brazilian Portuguese, both in informal oral speech and informal written language, it is more common to use the composite "estava falando", than to use the synthetic "falava", which is more common in formal written forms.
Both in European and Brazilian Portuguese, the synthetic pluperfect is considered old-fashioned and never used in spoken communication - it is substituted by the composite "eu tinha falado", which is formed with the imperfect form of the verb "ter" plus the past participle.

Galician

Similar to the closely related Portuguese, as well as to Spanish, but often called "copretérito". Same as with them, in formal usage "ti" and "vós/vosoutros" change to "vostede" and "vostedes" and are followed by the third person. In verbs ended in -aer, -oer, -aír and -oír, the first and second person of the plural show the presence of a diaeresis.
cantarbaterpartirpórmoer
eucantababatíapartíapuñamoía
ticantabasbatiaspartíaspuñasmoías
el/ela/vostedecantababatíapartíapuñamoía
nós/nosoutroscantábamosbatíamospartíamospuñamosmoïamos
vós/vosoutroscantábadesbatíadespartíadespuñadesmoïades
eles/elas/vostedescantabanbatíanpartíanpuñanmoía

Persian

Like all other past tenses, imperfect is conjugated regularly for all verbs. Formation: + mi- + past stem + past ending
raftan kâr kardan
1st sg.miraftamkâr mikardam

Slavic languages

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

Turkish

Turkish has separate tenses for past continuous and imperfect.
To form the past continuous tense for Turkish verbs, after removing the infinitive suffix, take the present continuous tense suffix "-yor" without personal suffixes, and add the ending for the simple past plus the appropriate personal suffix
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:
gelmekgitmekağlamakbeklemektoplamaksöylemeksatmak
bengelmiyordumgitmiyordumağlamıyordumbeklemiyordumtoplamıyordumsöylemiyordumsatmıyordum
sengelmiyordungitmiyordunağlamıyordunbeklemiyorduntoplamıyordunsöylemiyordunsatmıyordun
ogelmiyordugitmiyorduağlamıyordubeklemiyordutoplamıyordusöylemiyordusatmıyordu
bizgelmiyordukgitmiyordukağlamıyordukbeklemiyorduktoplamıyorduksöylemiyorduksatmıyorduk
sizgelmiyordunuzgitmiyordunuzağlamıyordunuzbeklemiyordunuztoplamıyordunuzsöylemiyordunuzsatmıyordunuz
onlargelmiyorlardıgitmiyorlardıağlamıyorlardıbeklemiyorlardıtoplamıyorlardısöylemiyorlardısatmıyorlardı

Semitic languages, especially the ancient forms, do not make use of the imperfect tense with verbs. Instead, they use the imperfective and perfective aspects, respectively. Aspects are similar to tenses, but differ by requiring contextual comprehension in order to arrive at whether or not the verb indicates a completed or non-completed action.

Dravidian languages

Malayalam

In Malayalam, there are two indicative imperfects, corresponding exactly with English:
To make a verb in the imperfect negative, add അല്ല് after the ഉകയ part of the ending for the "was doing" imperfect. For example, ഓടുകയല്ലായിരുന്നു . To do the same for the "used to do" imperfect, take off the ഉമ from the ending and add അത്തില്ല instead. For example, ഓടത്തില്ലായിരുന്നു