1. The imperfect Italian II: Signora Harrington

2. The imperfect is much more frequently used in Italian than in English. It expresses the English "used to" and is used for the following actions or conditions: to describe actions or conditions that lasted an indefinite time in the past. (duration cannot be specified) express an habitual action in the past (Every night I read a book) Describe time (it was 7:00 oclock) Physical or mental states (Angela was worried) Age in the past (In 1976 I was 15) Weather in the past. (It was raining) Environment (outside it was cold) An action in progress while another action was taking place (While I was eating she called me)

3. Some adverbial expressions that are commonly used with the imperfect tense include: a volte (at times) continuamente (continuously) giorno dopo giorno (day in and day out) Ogni tanto (once in a while) sempre (always) spesso spesso (again and again) tutti i giorni (every day)

4. Giocavo a calcio ogni pomeriggio. (I played soccer every afternoon.) habitual Sempre credevano tutto. (They always believed everything.) habitual Volevamo andare in Italia. (We wanted to go to Italy.) unknown duration of an action Il cielo era sempre blu. (The sky was always blue.) Environment Here are a few examples of the imperfetto:

5. The ending s for the imperfect, as you know, are identical in all three conjugations VoVamo ViVate VaVano

6. ParlareVedereDormire parlavovedevodormivo parlavivedevidormivi parlavavedevadormiva parlavamovedevamodormivamo parlavatevedevatedormivate parlavanovedevanodormivano

7. EssereFareBereDire EroFacevoBevevoDicevo EriFaceviBeveviDicevi EraFacevaBevevaDiceva EravamoFacevamoBevevamoDicevamo EravateFacevateBevevateDicevate EranoFacevanoBevevanodicevano

8. Complete Italian Grammar Book pg. 143 12.1 1-30 Construct 15 sentences using the imperfect