Page 31 - verbo italiano

Verb Usage Review / 21

• To tell what time, day, or month it was in the past (never the present
perfect).

Erano le 2 quando arrivammo. It was 2 o’clock when we arrived.

See page 52 for the use of imperfect with the verbs volere, dovere, and potere.
The Italian imperfect tense accompanied by the preposition da + “a time expres-
sion” corresponds to the English past perfect tense (“I had worked,” “I had been
working for/since” + time expression). It expresses how long (or since when) an
action had been going on. The construction is: imperfect + da + time expression to
express length of time.
Lavoravano alla Fiat da dieci anni. They had been working at Fiat for ten
years.

Forming the imperfect

The imperfect tense is formed by dropping the infinitive ending –are, -ere, or -ire
and adding the appropriate ending, as shown in Table 8, to the remaining stem.
The ending is different for each person.

Table 8 Imperfect Regular Forms
Drop –are –ere –ire
(io) –avo –evo –ivo
(tu) –avi –evi –ivi
(lui/lei/Lei) –ava –eva –iva
(noi) –avamo –evamo –ivamo
(voi) –avate –evate –ivate
(loro) –avano –evano –ivano

For example:
parlare: parlavo, parlavi, parlava, parlavamo, parlavate, parlavano
vivere: vivevo, vivevi, viveva, vivevamo, vivevate, vivevano
dormire: dormivo, dormivi, dormiva, dormivamo, dormivate, dormivano
capire: capivo, capivi, capiva, capivamo, capivate, capivano

Note the following about the imperfect tense:
• The endings are the same for all conjugations. The only difference is the
characteristic vowel that each conjugation maintains (–are, –ere, –ire).
• The verbs ending in –ire do not fall into two groups as for the present tense
(dormo, capisco).
• The main stress falls on the second syllable from the end—for example,
faCEvo, eraVAmo, beVEvi. The loro form has the stress on the third vowel
from the end—for example, faCEvano, Erano, beVEvano.
Compared to the the present tense, the imperfect is a more regular tense. Only a
few verbs are irregular in this tense. The verb essere is irregular:
essere: ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano