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Coniugazioni dell’imperfetto
The Italian imperfect is very easy to conjugate. All regular and many irregular Italian verbs are conjugated as follows:
- Start with the infinitive
- Drop the infinitive ending (-are, -ere, -ire) to find the stem
- Add the imperfect ending
Regular –are verbs
Per esempio: abitare (to live)
| Pronoun | Ending | abitare > abit- |
| io | -avo | abitavo |
| tu | -avi | abitavi |
| lui, lei | -ava | abitava |
| noi | -avamo | abitavamo |
| voi | -avate | abitavate |
| loro | -avano | abitavano |
Regular –ere verbs
Per esempio: credere (to believe)
| Pronoun | Ending | credere > cred- |
| io | -evo | credevo |
| tu | -evi | credevi |
| lui, lei | -eva | credeva |
| noi | -evamo | credevamo |
| voi | -evate | credevate |
| loro | -evano | credevano |
Regular –ire verbs
In the imperfect, regular –ire verbs like partire (to leave) and regular –ire with –isc– verbs like capire (to understand) are conjugated the same way:
| Pronoun | Ending | partire > part- | capire > cap- |
| io | -ivo | partivo | capivo |
| tu | -ivi | partivi | capivi |
| lui, lei | -iva | partiva | capiva |
| noi | -ivamo | partivamo | capivamo |
| voi | -ivate | partivate | capivate |
| loro | -ivano | partivano | capivano |
Note that the endings for the different types of verbs are very similar: the only thing that changes from one kind of verb to another is the first letter of the stem, which matches the type of verb.
| Pronoun | –are verbs | –ere verbs | –ire verbs |
| io | -avo | -evo | -ivo |
| tu | -avi | -evi | -ivi |
| lui, lei | -ava | -eva | -iva |
| noi | -avamo | -evamo | -ivamo |
| voi | -avate | -evate | -ivate |
| loro | -avano | -evano | -ivano |
Irregular verbs
Irregular –are verbs: The irregular verbs andare, dare, and stare are regular in the imperfect.
Some irregular verbs have an irregular imperfect stem but take the regular –ere endings.
| Infinitive | Imperfect stem | |
| bere | bev- | (to drink) |
| dire | dic- | (to say, tell) |
| fare | fac- | (to do, make) |
| porre* | pon- | (to put) |
| tradurre** | traduc- | (to translate) |
* And other verbs that end in –orre.
** And other verbs that end in –urre.
Essere (to be) is the only Italian verb that is completely irregular in the imperfect:
| io | ero | |
| tu | eri | |
| lui, lei | era | |
| noi | eravamo | |
| voi | eravate | |
| loro | erano |
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Ciao! I’m Laura K Lawless, creator, writer, editor, and CLO (Chief Lawless Officer) of this free online Italian learning site. Lawless Italian is an official Lawless Languages site.
