Imperfect

The imperfect (abbreviated IMPERF) is a verb form which combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English 'was walking' or 'used to walk.' It contrasts with preterite forms, which refer to a single completed event in the past. The imperfect (abbreviated IMPERF) is a verb form which combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English 'was walking' or 'used to walk.' It contrasts with preterite forms, which refer to a single completed event in the past. Traditionally, the imperfect of languages such as Latin and French is referred to as one of the tenses, although it actually encodes aspectual information in addition to tense (time reference). It may be more precisely called past imperfective.' English has no general imperfective and expresses it in different ways. The term 'imperfect' in English refers to forms much more commonly called past progressive or past continuous (like was doing or were doing). These are combinations of past tense with specifically continuous or progressive aspect. In German, Imperfekt formerly referred to the simply conjugated past tense (to contrast with the Perfekt or compound past form), but the term Präteritum (preterite) is now preferred, since the form does not carry any implication of imperfective aspect. 'Imperfect' comes from the Latin imperfectus 'unfinished', because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action. The equivalent Ancient Greek term was paratatikós 'prolonged'. Imperfect meanings in English are expressed in different ways depending on whether the event is continuous or habitual. For a continuous action (one that was in progress at a particular time in the past), the past progressive (past continuous) form is used, as in 'I was eating'; 'They were running fast.' However certain verbs that express state rather than action do not mark the progressive aspect (see Uses of English verb forms § Progressive); in these cases the simple past tense is used instead: 'He was hungry'; 'We knew what to do next.' Habitual (repeated) action in the past can be marked by used to, as in 'I used to eat a lot', or by the auxiliary verb would, as in 'Back then, I would eat early and would walk to school.' (The auxiliary would also has other uses, such as expressing conditional mood.) However, in many cases the habitual nature of the action does not need to be explicitly marked on the verb, and the simple past is used: 'We always ate dinner at six o'clock.'