Part I: The Imperfect Tense

 Up to now, all our verbs in Latin have happened in the present tense: puer puellam amat. The boy loves the girl.  The Imperfect Tense is one of three past Latin tenses  The Imperfect happens a little bit ago and is still happening: The boy was loving the girl.

 In English, we have helping verbs to help us determine the tense of a verb: The boy was loving the girl.  In Latin, we have endings that tell us which tense we have: puer puellam amabat.  The next slide has the present tense endings you already know and the new imperfect tense endings – note the differences and similarities...

PRESENT TENSE SingularPlural 1 st person-o-o-mus 2 nd person-s-s-tis 3 rd person-t-t- nt IMPERFECT TENSE SingularPlural 1 st person-bam-bamus 2 nd person-bas-batis 3 rd person-bat- bant The Imperfect is just the letters ‘ba’ plus the present tense endings!

How to form the Imperfect in all conjugations

 There are four conjugations of verbs in Latin  The last three letters of the second principal part tells the conjugation ConjugationSecond Principal Part 1 st conjugation-are 2 nd conjugation- ēre 3 rd conjugation-ere 4 th conjugation- ire I can’t conjugate verbs without knowing these!!

First Conjugation Stem Connecting Vowel EndingVerb I was preparing parabamparabam You were preparing parabasparabas He was preparing parabatparabat We were preparing parabamusparabamus You all were preparing parabatisparabatis They were preparing parabantparabant Each imperfect tense verb is made up of three parts: 1. the stem: this is the second principal part without the last three letters 2. the connecting vowel: this differs for each conjugation 3. the ending: these are the endings for the imperfect tense Let’s look at the verb paro, parare, paravi

Second Conjugation Stem Connecting Vowel EndingVerb I was warning monebammonebam You were warning monebasmonebas He was warning monebatmonebat We were warning monebamusmonebamus You wll were warning monebatismonebatis They were warning monebantmonebant All the following conjugations are formed in the same way. All that will change is the connecting vowel. Let’s look at the verb moneo, monēre, monui

Third Conjugation Stem Connecting Vowel EndingVerb I was rulingregebamregebam You were ruling regebasregebas He was ruling regebatregebat We were ruling regebamusregebamus You all were ruling regebatisregebatis They were ruling regebantregebant All the following conjugations are formed in the same way. All that will change is the connecting vowel. Let’s look at the verb rego, regere, rexi

Fourth Conjugation Stem Connecting Vowel EndingVerb I was hearing audiebamaudiebam You were hearing audiebasaudiebas He was hearing audiebataudiebat We were hearing audiebamusaudiebamus You all were hearing audiebatisaudiebatis They were hearing audiebantaudiebant All the following conjugations are formed in the same way. All that will change is the connecting vowel. Let’s look at the verb audio, audire, audivi

 The Imperfect Tense happens in the recent past  The best translation for the imperfect is ‘was _____ ing’  The connecting vowels are: 1 st conjugation2 nd conjugation3 rd conjugation4 th conjugation aeeie