Italian Verb Tenses

The Imperfect Tense

Formation

The imperfect tense is formed by removing the "re" ending from the verb and adding the appropriate ending from the list below:

	singular	plural
1st-person	vo	vamo
2nd-person	vi	vate
3rd-person	va	vano

Examples:

io parlavo, tu parlavi, lui parlava, noi parlavamo, voi parlavate, loro parlavano

Usage

The imperfect tense in Italian is used to refer to repeated actions in the past, as well as actions in the past that had no definitive start and end. As with Spanish, it is also used for descriptions in the past as well.

The 2 English forms it is equivalent to are as follows:

1. I was speaking
2. I used to speak

There are several common phrases that indicate that the imperfect needs to be used. These include:

a volte sempre

at times always