The Imperfect Tense
Conceptual Overview
The imperfect tense is one of three different past tenses (along with the perfect and pluperfect) used in Latin. In its usage in the indicative mood, the imperfect is different from the other two tenses because it connotes an ongoing, continuous, habitual, or attempted action in the past (it never refers to a completed action).
For instance, for the active form of the English verb “to make”, we can translate the Latin imperfect as “was/were making” (the most common translation of the imperfect), “used to make”, “kept on making”, or “began to make.” Similarly, for the passive form of the English verb “to make” (i.e. “to be made”), we can translate the Latin imperfect as “was/were being made”, “used to be made”, “kept being made”, or “began to be made.”
Below are some English examples where we would use the Latin imperfect (note the -ba infix in all the Latin form - this is the telltale sign that a verb is in the imperfect):
- When I went to the store, she was doing (faciēbat) her homework.
- They used to give (dabant) the football players free pizza on Friday.
- Although the teacher told them to stop working, the students kept writing (scrībēbant) their exams.
- Katie was being asked (petēbātur) to play Beyonce.
Formation
To form the imperfect indicative (NB: this is the same for both active and passive), we start by finding the verb’s present stem. To determine the present stem, we take the second principal part (the present active infinitive) and chop off the final -re.
For instance, in the case of the verb, videō, its second principal part is vidēre and taking off the -re gives us a present stem of vidē-.
For verbs that belong to the first and second conjugation, we do not need to modify the present stem and can simply add -ba to the stem to make the imperfect stem. In the case of videō:
vidēre -> vidē- (present stem) -> vidē-ba- (imperfect stem)
For verbs that belong to the third and fourth we have to make some changes to the present stem before adding -ba:
- In the third conjugation, the e of the present stem becomes ē.
- In the fourth conjugation, the ī of the present stem becomes iē.
- In the case of third -io verbs, the e of the present stem becomes iē as well.
Thus, audīre** -> *audī- (present stem) -> audiē- -> audiē-ba- (imperfect stem)
To this stem, we add the endings for the relevant person and number, and voice, as shown below:
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -m | -mus |
| 2nd | -s | -tis |
| 3rd | -t | -nt |
Passive (NB: To move from active to passive in the imperfect, all we have to do is change personal endings.)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -r | -mur |
| 2nd | -ris | -mini |
| 3rd | -tur | -ntur |
So if we wanted to form the 3rd person plural imperfect passive indicative of videō:
vidēre -> vidē- (present stem) -> vidē-ba- (imperfect stem) -> vidē-ba-ntur