Lesson 1: Imperfect tense - part 1 | 1 2

We recommend that you begin with lesson 1 and work through to lesson 12. Lesson 1 is the most simple; lesson 12 is the most difficult. You can work at your own pace. You should use the grammar tables, glossary and word list regularly to work through the activities and practice sentences. This will help you to become more familiar with the different constructs that you meet.

In Beginners’ Latin we looked at verbs in the present tense.

For example:

Ego Lucie messuagium do

I give a messuage to Lucy

We also looked at verbs in the past tense

For example:

Ego Lucie messuagium dedi

I gave a messuage to Lucy

This kind of past tense is called a perfect tense. It is used to describe an action in the past which is completed.

To describe a past action or state which is incomplete, we use an imperfect tense. This tense indicates an action which has gone on over a period time or has happened frequently. It is translated into English by ‘was/were’ + ‘-ing’ or ‘used to’.

For example:

Ego Lucie messuagium dabam

I was giving a messuage to Lucy

Just as with the present and perfect tenses, we need to know the conjugation a verb belongs to in order to make an imperfect tense.

The endings for the imperfect tense are similar to those of the present tense.

Present tense endings
Latin	English
-o	I	(first person singular)
-s	you	(second person singular)
-t	he/she/it	(third person singular)
-mus	we	(first person plural)
-tis	you	(second person plural)
-nt	they	(third person plural)

The difference is that they are preceded by ‘ba-’ and, in the first person singular, the characteristic ‘-o’ of the present changes to ‘-m’ in the imperfect.

For example:

Imperfect tense endings
Latin	English
-bam	I
-bas	you (singular)
-bat	he/she/it
-bamus	we
-batis	you (plural)
-bant	they

To form the imperfect tense, remove ‘-re’ from the infinitive form of the verb and add the relevant ending above. However, if the verb is in the fourth conjugation, you will need to add an ‘-e’ before adding the relevant ending.

For example:

Imperfect tense of do, dare, dedi, datum (1) to give

Latin	English
dabam	I was giving, I used to give
dabas	you were giving, you used to give
dabat	he/she/it was giving, he/she/it used to give
dabamus	we were giving, we used to give
dabatis	you were giving, you used to give
dabant	they were giving, they used to give

Imperfect tense of audio, audire, audivi, auditum (4) to hear

Latin	English
audiebam	I was hearing, I used to hear
audiebas	you were hearing, you used to hear
audiebat	he/she/it was hearing, he/she/it used to hear
audiebamus	we were hearing, we used to hear
audiebatis	you were hearing, you used to hear
audibant	they were hearing, they used to hear