Imperfect Tense Review All Four Conjugations Magister Henderson Latin II

About the Imperfect Tense The imperfect tense is one of Latin’s three past tenses. It is created from the present stem, by adding the following endings:

Building the Imperfect Tense For the first, second, third conjugations, you form the imperfect tense by dropping the –re ending of the infinitive and adding the endings on the previous page. amō, amāre = to love

Building the Imperfect Tense ponō, ponere = to put habeō, habēre = to have

Building the Imperfect Tense The 3 rd –iō conjugation and 4 th conjugations form their imperfect slightly differently. Both these conjugations drop the entire infinitive ending (-ere or –īre) and add the letters –iē- to the stem. The imperfect tense endings are them added on to this modified verb stem.

Building the Imperfect Tense audiō, audīre = to hear capiō, capere = to capture

Translating the Imperfect Tense The imperfect tense usually carries the sense of the English progressive past tense, translated with the helping verbs “was” or “were”. It can also show a habitual or customary action, translated with the phrase “used to”. Occasionally it can carry the meaning of the the emphatic past tense, translated with the helping verb “did”.

Translating the Imperfect Tense The imperfect can occasionally be translated with the simple past tense, though that job is usually handled by the perfect tense. It can also show a repeated action, translated with the phrase “kept (on)”.