UNIT SIXTEEN The imperfect tense 1 The imperfect is, together with the present perfect, one of the most used past tenses in Italian. It is called ‘imperfect’ because, generally speaking, there is no reference to the beginning or end of the action it expresses: either the length of time the action lasted is not relevant, or the action is seen as the background to another action, or two actions took place at the same time and lasted the same length of time. Here are some typical examples: As you can see from the examples, the Italian imperfect corresponds to sev- eral di ff erent English forms. We will look at the di ff erent meanings and uses of this tense, but  fi rst we will look at its forms. 2 The forms of the imperfect are very regular. Here are the endings for the three conjugations ( -are ,  -ere ,  -ire ): The forms of the imperfect Mio nonno  lavorava  in India. Mia nonna  era  infermiera. Mentre io  entravo,  Elena  usciva. Quando ho cominciato la scuola avevo  cinque anni. Elena è arrivata mentre io  uscivo. Claudia  parlava  con un’amica quando è arrivato l’autobus. Quando  ero  al mare  nuotavo  tutti i giorni. My grandfather used to work in India. My grandmother was a nurse. As I was going in, Elena was coming out. When I started school I was  fi ve. Elena arrived as I was going out. Claudia was talking to a friend when the bus arrived. When I was at the seaside I went/used to go swimming every day.