The imperfect (abbreviated IMPERF) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). 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 (time reference). It may be more precisely called past imperfective.[1]

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 (e.g. "was doing" or "were doing"). These are combinations of past tense with specifically continuous or progressive aspect. In German, Imperfekt formerly referred to the simply conjugated past tense (to contrast with the Perfekt or compound past form), but the term Präteritum (preterite) is now preferred, since the form does not carry any implication of imperfective aspect.

"Imperfect" comes from the Latin imperfectus "unfinished",[2] because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action. The equivalent Ancient Greek term was paratatikós "prolonged".[3]

Indo-European languages

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Germanic languages

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Bavarian does not have Imperfect.

English

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Imperfect meanings in English are expressed in different ways depending on whether the event is continuous or habitual.

For a continuous action (one that was in progress at a particular time in the past), the past progressive (past continuous) 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 (see Uses of English verb forms § Progressive); in these cases the simple past tense is used instead: "He was hungry"; "We knew what to do next."

Habitual (repeated) 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." (The auxiliary would also has other uses, such as expressing conditional mood.)[4] 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."

Italic languages

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Latin

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Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

  parāre docēre legere capere scīre esse
ego parābam docēbam legēbam capiēbam sciēbam eram
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
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.

Romance languages

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In Romance languages, 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).
  • A physical or mental state or condition in progress in the past. Often used with verbs of being, emotion, capability, or conscience.

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

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To form the imperfect for French regular verbs, take the first person plural present tense, the "nous" (we) form, subtract the -ons suffix, and add the appropriate ending (the forms for être (to be), whose "nous" form does not end in -ons, are irregular; they start with ét- but have the same endings). 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.

It is used to express the ideas of habitual actions or states of being; physical and emotional descriptions: time, weather, age, feelings; actions or states of an unspecified duration; background information in conjunction with the passé composé; wishes or suggestions; conditions in "si" clauses; the expressions "être en train de" and "venir de" in the past.

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

Italian

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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.
  • Although dire and opporre (as all the composite forms of verb porre and dire) may seem irregular, they are a part of a verb family that has stronger roots to Latin equivalents (lat. pōnere/pōnēbam and dīcere/dīcēbam). Other verbs include fare(infinitive)/faccio(present tense)/facevo(imperfect) (lat.facere/facio/faciēbam), bere/bevo/bevevo (bibere/bibo/bibēbam), trarre/traggo/traevo (trahere/traho/trahēbam), durre/duco/ducevo[obs.] (dūcere/dūco/dūcēbam) and all their composite forms..
  • 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

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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 infinitives 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 infinitives 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

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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
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 eres (thanks to pre-classical Latin rhotacism). The imperfect of ver (veía etc.) was historically considered regular in Old Spanish, where the infinitive veer provided the stem ve-, but that is no longer the case in standard Spanish. In formal language, pronouns "tú" and "vosotros" are replaced by "usted" and "ustedes" (sometimes abbreviated as Ud./Vd. and Uds./Vds.), with the verb conjugated in third person. American Spanish always replaces "vosotros" with "ustedes", switching the verb accordingly. The countries that show the kind of voseo in which "tú" is replaced by "vos" use the same forms as for "tú" in this tense.
  • 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 or subject noun is included for the sake of clarification.

Portuguese

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In Portuguese, the imperfect indicative, called "pretérito imperfeito", is quite similar to Spanish:

  cantar bater partir pôr ser ter vir
eu cantava batia partia punha era tinha vinha
tu cantavas batias partias punhas eras tinhas vinhas
ele/ela/você cantava batia partia punha era tinha vinha
nós cantávamos batíamos partíamos púnhamos éramos tínhamos vínhamos
vós cantáveis batíeis partíeis púnheis éreis tínheis vínheis
eles/elas/vocês cantavam batiam partiam punham eram tinham vinham

There are four irregular verbs: "pôr" (to put), "ser" (to be), "ter" (to have) and "vir" (to come). Unlike in Spanish, the verbs "ver" (to see) and "ir" (to go) are regular in the Portuguese imperfect.

Like in Italian, it is also commonly formed by combining the imperfect of the verb estar (estava, estavas, estava, estávamos, estáveis, estavam) with the gerund (for example, "falando", the gerund form of "falar", to speak, to talk). In Brazilian Portuguese, both in informal oral speech and informal written language (for example, online or phone texting), it is more common to use the composite "estava falando" (commonly reduced to "tava falando"), than to use the synthetic "falava", which is more common in formal written forms.

Both in European and Brazilian Portuguese, the synthetic pluperfect ("eu falara" "I had spoken") 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" (to have) (tinha tinhas tinha tínhamos tínheis tinham) plus the past participle ("falado"). Alternatively, the verb "ter" can be swapped with the imperfect form of the verb "haver" (to have) (havia havias havia haviamos havíeis haviam)

Galician

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Similar to the closely related Portuguese, as well as to Spanish, but often called "copretérito" (from co-, same particle found in English "collaboration" and "coexistence", plus "pretérito", which is "past tense", in reference of it being a second past tense that exists along the regular one). 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.

  cantar bater partir pór moer
eu cantaba batía partía puña moía
ti cantabas batias partías puñas moías
el/ela/vostede cantaba batía partía puña moía
nós/nosoutros cantábamos batíamos partíamos puñamos moïamos
vós/vosoutros cantábades batíades partíades puñades moïades
eles/elas/vostedes cantaban batían partían puñan moía

Indo-Aryan languages

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Hindi

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Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language, has indicative imperfect tense conjugation only for the verb होना (honā) [to be] and the rest of the verbs lack this conjugation. The indicative imperfect forms of होना (honā) comes from Sanskrit स्थित (stʰita) "standing, situated" which are derived from the PIE root *steh₂- (“to stand”).[5] The imperfect conjugation is derived from a participle form and hence its conjugations agree only with the number and gender of the grammatical person and not the pronoun itself. So, the grammatically singular pronouns (e.g., मैं ma͠i "I" and तू tū "you" etc.) are assigned the singular imperfect forms (i.e. था thā or थी thī) depending on the gender of the person or the noun they refer to, and the grammatically plural pronouns (e.g. हम ham "we" etc.) are assigned the plural imperfect forms (थे thē and थीं thīm̊). An exception to this is the pronoun तुम (tum) which takes in the plural imperfect form (थे thē) in masculine gender but singular form (थी thī) in feminine gender.

These imperfect conjugations also act as copula to form the imperfect past forms for the three grammatical aspects that Hindi hasː Habitual, Perfective, and Progressive aspects.

Imperfect Past Copula
Gender Singular Plural
thā thē
thī thīm̊
Imperfect Past Conjugations
Aspect Singular Plural Translation
(3rd person only)
1P 2P 3P 2P 1P 3P
ma͠i ye/vo tum āp ham ye/vo
Simple thā thē he was
thī thīm̊ she was
Habitual boltā thā boltē thē he used to speak
boltī thī boltī thīm̊ she used to speak
Progressive bol rahā thā bol rahē thē he was speaking
bol rahī thī bol rahī thīm̊ she was speaking
Noteː The 2P pronouns 'āp' & 'tum' although grammatically plural but are used as singular pronouns, akin to English pronoun 'you'.

Assamese

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In Assamese, two imperfect forms are recognisedː present progressive and/or present perfect & past progressive and/or remote past. There is only one periphrastic tense which functions as both the present progressive and present perfect with reference to the setting in which is placed.[citation needed]

1P 2P 3P
intimate familiar formal
Imperfective Present

বুলিছোঁ

bulisü͂

বুলিছোঁ

bulisü͂

বুলিছ

buliso

বুলিছ

buliso

বুলিছা

bulisa

বুলিছা

bulisa

বুলিছে

bulise

বুলিছে

bulise

Past

বুলিছিলোঁ

bulisilü͂

বুলিছিলোঁ

bulisilü͂

বুলিছিলি

bulisili

বুলিছিলি

bulisili

বুলিছিলা

bulisila

বুলিছিলা

bulisila

বুলিছিলে

bulisile

বুলিছিলে

bulisile

Continuous Present

বুলি

buli

আছোঁ

asü͂

বুলি আছোঁ

buli asü͂

বুলি

buli

আছ

aso

বুলি আছ

buli aso

বুলি

buli

আছা

asa

বুলি আছা

buli asa

বুলি

buli

আছে

ase

বুলি আছে

buli ase

Past

বুলি

buli

আছিলোঁ

asilü͂

বুলি আছিলোঁ

buli asilü͂

বুলি

buli

আছিলি

asili

বুলি আছিলি

buli asili

বুলি

buli

আছিলা

asila

বুলি আছিলা

buli asila

বুলি

buli

আছিলে

asile

বুলি আছিলে

buli asile

Future

বুলি

buli

থাকিম

thakim

বুলি থাকিম

buli thakim

বুলি

buli

থাকিবি

thakibi

বুলি থাকিবি

buli thakibi

বুলি

buli

থাকিবা

thakiba

বুলি থাকিবা

buli thakiba

বুলি

buli

থাকিব

thakibo

বুলি থাকিব

buli thakibo

Indo-Iranian languages

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Persian

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Like all other past tenses, imperfect is conjugated regularly for all verbs. Formation: [preverb] + mi- + past stem + past ending. Conjugation of the imperfect indicative for the first person singular is shown in the table belowː

  raftan (to go) kâr kardan (to work)
1st sg. miraftam kâr mikardam
2nd sg. mirafti kâr mikardi
3rd sg. miraft kâr mikard
1st pl. miraftim kâr mikardim
2nd pl. miraftid kâr mikardid
3rd pl. miraftand kâr mikardand

Slavic languages

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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

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

  • 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
    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
    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
  • 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

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

Dravidian languages

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Malayalam

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In Malayalam (verbs are never conjugated for grammatical person, 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)

References

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  1. ^ Bernard Comrie, Tense, 1985, pp. 6–7.
  2. ^ imperfectus. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  3. ^ παρατατικός. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  4. ^ "UltraLingua Online Dictionary & Grammar, "Conditional tense"". Archived from the original on 2009-10-11.
  5. ^ Pokorny, J. (2007). Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary. Indo-European Language Revival Association. pp. 2906–2914.