What is it?

The imperfect, or the imperfetto, is a past tense form used to describe ongoing or habitual events in the past.

When do we use it?

The imperfect can correspond to the past progressive (-ing form) in English:

Giocavo a calcio. → I was playing soccer.

Or, it is the form we use to describe something we used to do, or would do in the past.

Giocavo a calcio. → I used to play soccer. / I would play soccer.

In addition to these examples, when we tell stories in the past, the imperfect is also used in specific instances in comparison with the passato prossimo. We use the imperfect to express:

Conjugations

Regular verbs

The conjugations for the imperfect are mostly regular! After removing the final -re from the infinitive form, the same endings are added to all of the verb categories.

Irregular verbs

There are only four (4) irregular verbs you need to know in the imperfect right now, and with the exception of essere, they only require the addition of two letters to complete the conjugation. You can see the patterns among them below.