Imperfect Tense

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Chapter 26

• Imperfect Tense

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Lesson Objectives

• To learn to conjugate verbs in the imperfect
  tense
• To understand what the imperfect tense means and
  how or when to use it
• To learn the imperfect forms of the to be verb

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The Imperfect Tense

• Words in the imperfect tense show action or being
  as repeated, customary, or continuous. In other
  words, NOT perfectly completed (which is what
  perfect tense tells us).
• Imperfect is translated into English by using
• Was, were, used to , kept, would, tried to (note
  was and were are just simple past tense,
  which is ok to use as the translation)

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Conjugating Imperfect Tense

• The tense sign for imperfect tense is ba-.
  This is added to the present stem and then
  personal endings are added to the end. NOTE the
  personal ending for 1st person singular is m.
• portabam portabamus
• portabas portabatis
• portabat portabant

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The Imperfect form of to be

• eram eramus
• eras eratis
• erat erant