• Home
  • Language
    • Words >
      • Nouns >
        • Nominative and Vocative Case
        • Genitive Case
        • Accusative Case
        • Dative Case
        • Ablative Case
        • Irregular Nouns
      • Verbs >
        • Tenses >
          • Present Tense
          • Perfect Tense
          • Imperfect Tense
          • Pluperfect Tense
          • Future Tense
        • Infinitives
        • Active, Passive, and Deponent Verbs
        • Subjunctive Mood
        • Imperative Mood
        • "Be" and Other Irregular Verbs
      • Other Basic Word Types >
        • Adjectives >
          • 1st and 2nd Declension
          • 3rd Declension
        • Adverbs
        • Prepositions
    • Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences >
      • Indirect Discourse >
        • Indirect Commands
        • Indirect Statements
        • Indirect Questions
      • Relative Clauses
      • Purpose Clauses
      • Result Clauses
      • Conditional Sentences
    • Literature and Literary Devices >
      • Poetic Meter
  • History
    • Origins of Rome
    • Kingdom
    • Republic
    • Empire
    • Crisis and Fall
  • Culture
  • Latin Club
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Language
    • Words >
      • Nouns >
        • Nominative and Vocative Case
        • Genitive Case
        • Accusative Case
        • Dative Case
        • Ablative Case
        • Irregular Nouns
      • Verbs >
        • Tenses >
          • Present Tense
          • Perfect Tense
          • Imperfect Tense
          • Pluperfect Tense
          • Future Tense
        • Infinitives
        • Active, Passive, and Deponent Verbs
        • Subjunctive Mood
        • Imperative Mood
        • "Be" and Other Irregular Verbs
      • Other Basic Word Types >
        • Adjectives >
          • 1st and 2nd Declension
          • 3rd Declension
        • Adverbs
        • Prepositions
    • Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences >
      • Indirect Discourse >
        • Indirect Commands
        • Indirect Statements
        • Indirect Questions
      • Relative Clauses
      • Purpose Clauses
      • Result Clauses
      • Conditional Sentences
    • Literature and Literary Devices >
      • Poetic Meter
  • History
    • Origins of Rome
    • Kingdom
    • Republic
    • Empire
    • Crisis and Fall
  • Culture
  • Latin Club
  • Contact
AMCHS Latin

imperfect tense

WHAT IS IT IN ENGLISH?

If the perfect tense is the solid, one-time, did-it-and-now-it's-over tense, then the imperfect tense is the imprecise, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey tense. It happened in the past, sure, and it's probably over with now, but it happened either repeatedly or over an extended period of time, and probably other stuff happened during that time as well. In terms of wumbo, we can translate these verbs as "was wumboing" or "used to wumbo."

I was running.                             I used to run.
You were laughing.                   You used to laugh.
Timmy was belching.               Timmy used to belch.
We were eating the cat.           We used to eat the cat.
Sally was going to the store.    Sally used to go the store.

HOW DOES IT WORK IN LATIN?

The imperfect tense endings are very distinctive and recognizable, and are thankfully also pretty easy to conjugate. First, let's see the endings, and then we can see how to apply them.


Picture
First Conjugation
infinitive - re + imperfect ending

Second Conjugation
infinitive - re + imperfect ending

Third Conjugation (regular)
infinitive - re + imperfect ending

Third Conjugation (i-stem)
infinitive - re + ie + imperfect ending

Fourth Conjugation
infinitive - re + ie + imperfect ending
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.