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Latin from scratch course › #3: Imperfect and future › #3.9: Imperfect indicative

Latin from scratch #3.9: The active indicative imperfect past tense

In the ninth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the imperfect past indicative in the active voice (from now on, just imperfect). This is one of the two main past tenses, which is appearing all the time in texts about history, narrations, etc.

Contents

  • Morphology of the Latin imperfect indicative
  • Imperfect of the verb sum
  • Translation of the imperfect tense into English

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 12m 03s ⌛):

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Morphology of the Latin imperfect indicative

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The imperfect past tense in the indicative mood in the active voice is formed in the following way:

  1. present stem
  2. linking ē (3rd, mixed and 4th conjugations)
  3. imperfect indicative morpheme bā
  4. active endings

In the 1st person singular, the ending will always be ‑m, not ‑o.

1st conjugation2nd conjugation3rd conjugationmixed conjugation4th conjugation
amabam
amabas
amabat
amabamus
amabatis
amabant
monebam
monebas
monebat
monebamus
monebatis
monebant
ducebam
ducebas
ducebat
ducebamus
ducebatis
ducebant
capiebam
capiebas
capiebat
capiebamus
capiebatis
capiebant
audiebam
audiebas
audiebat
audiebamus
audiebatis
audiebant

(underlined letters are linking vowels)

You should pay attention to the stressed syllables, which in the 1st and 2nd persons plural is the morpheme ba: [amabámus], [amabátis].

Imperfect of the verb sum

We already know that the verb sum is highly irregular through its whole conjugation. That’s why we always have to learn it by heart in every tense and mood. In the imperfect tense, we can even see that the root itself is irregular: er‑ instead of es‑.

eram
eras
erat
eramus
eratis
erant

Even though the verb sum doesn’t have the morpheme bā, the stress is the same: the 1st and 2nd persons plural are [erámus], [erátis].

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Translation of the imperfect tense into English

There is no exact correspondence in past tenses between Latin and English. We’ll understand better once we have studied the perfect tense.

For now, we have to take into account that English does not have its own imperfect tense. So how can we express in English what the Latin imperfect expresses?

The imperfect tense expresses an action which isn’t considered finished, usually because it was in progress, it was repeated, etc.

A verb such as videbam can sometimes be translated simply as I saw, but other times better as I was seeing or I used to see. As for repetitions, English uses phrases such as I would see.

There’s no way to say beforehand how to translate the Latin imperfect: only context and what feels right!

Now let’s study another tense, quite less frequent: the future indicative tense.

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Next: The active indicative future tense →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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