Italian 5.7. Imperfect Indicative Tense

The imperfect indicative tense is used in Italian to describe:

1. Habitual or repeated actions in the past, e.g., “I used to play volleyball when I was young.”
2. Actions that continued in the past for undefine period, especially those interrupted by or in the background of another action, e.g., “While you were studying, I was watching TV.”
3. Descriptions of people, places, and objects in the past, e.g., “Da Vinci was a famous painter and scientist.”
4. Time and age in the past, e.g., “When I was 15 years old, I lived in a village.”

Notice that, depending on the context, the imperfect indicative tense can correspond to the simple past tense or the past progressive tense in English. In some contexts, it can also be translated to “used to” + infinitive or “would” + infinitive.

Conjugation

To form the stem of the verb needed for regular verb conjugation, we drop the final “-re” of the verb and attach the conjugation suffix. The suffixes are the same for the three types of verbs.

	-are ending e.g., parlare (to speak)	-ere ending e.g., vendere (to sell)	-ire ending e.g., partire (to leave)
io	parlavo	vendevo	partivo
tu	parlavi	vendevi	partivi
lui/lei	parlava	vendeva	partiva
noi	parlavamo	vendevamo	partivamo
voi	parlavate	vendevate	partivate
loro	parlavano	vendevano	partivano

Irregular Verbs

There are a few verbs in the imperfect indicative tense that are irregular. These should be practiced and memorized. The most common ones are: “essere” (to be), “bere” (to drink), “dire” (to say), and “fare” (to do).

	io	tu	lui/lei	noi	voi	loro
bere (to drink)	bevevo	bevevi	beveva	bevevamo	bevevate	bevevano
dare (to give)	davo	davi	dava	davamo	davate	davano
dire (to say/tell)	dicevo	dicevi	diceva	dicevamo	dicevate	dicevano
essere (to be)	ero	eri	era	eravamo	eravate	erano
fare (to do/make)	facevo	facevi	faceva	facevamo	facevate	facevano
stare (to stay/be)	stavo	stavi	stava	stavamo	stavate	stavano

Examples

Let us now look at some examples of the imperfect indicative tense in Italian in different contexts:

As a child, I used to live in a village. Da bambino, vivevo in un villaggio.	Habit in the past, indicated by “used to”
In the past, I would sleep only few hours. In passato, dormivo solo poche ore.	Habit in the past, indicated by “would”
My school professor was tall. Il mio insegnante di scuola era alto.	Description in the past
When I was 15 years old, I used to play tennis. Quando avevo 15 anni, giocavo a tennis.	Time and age in the past
I was at work when you called me. Ero al lavoro quando mi hai chiamato.	Actions continuously happening in the past when interrupted by another action

In general, use the imperfect when the sentence is in the past and you see words such as: “di solito” (usually), “sempre” (always), “mentre” (while), “a volte” (at times), “tutti i giorni” (every day), “ogni tanto” (every so often), etc., or phrases such as: “da piccolo” (as a child), “quando ero giovane” (when I was young), “quando avevo 15 anni” (when I was 15 years old), etc.

Quando ero giovane, potevo correre molto.	When I was young, I could run a lot.
Da bambino,mi piaceva la frutta.	When I was a child, I used to like fruits.
Quando ero adolescente, bevevo caffè.	When I was a teenager, I used to drink coffee.

Also, use the imperfect when comparing the present to the past, for example:

Oggi è facile viaggiare, ma prima era molto difficile.

Today it is easy to travel, but before, it used to be difficult.

Expressing Past Intentions

Another important use of the imperfect indicative tense in Italian is to express a past intention of doing something that does not end up being done in the present. These are expressions such as “I was going to …,” “I was thinking of …,” and “I wanted to ….”

The general formula of such expressions is as follows:

Imperfect tense of (“stare per,” “pensare a,” or “volere”) + infinitive

For example:

Stavo per chiamarti, ma mi sono addormentato.	I was going to call you, but I fell asleep.
Pensavo di uscire, ma è già troppo tardi.	I was thinking of going out, but it’s already too late.
Volevo venire, ma ho avuto un incidente.	I wanted to come, but I had an accident.

When to Use the Present Perfect Instead

On the other hand, use the present perfect or the past absolute if you are talking about actions with a defined time or period in the past. Look for expressions such as: yesterday, last night, last week, ago, in 1994, from… to…, two times, for three hours, the other day, etc. These expressions may not be explicitly used, but the meaning can implicitly refer to a defined time or period in the past, which necessitates the use of the present perfect or the past absolute.

I visited my mother last night. Ieri sera ho fatto visita a mia madre.	Action with defined time in the past (last night)
I was at the gym for two hours. Sono stato in palestra per due ore.	Action with defined time in the past (for two hours)
I talked to her the other day. Le ho parlato l’altro giorno.	Action with defined time in the past (the other day [1])
In 1922, Alexander Bell invented the telephone. Nel 1922 Alexander Bell inventò il telefono.	Action with defined time in the past (in 1922)

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[1] Although “the other day” may seem vague and undefined, it is considered a defined time from a grammatical viewpoint. In addition, the sentence does not imply any habit or continuous action in the past.

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