This is the easiest tense in Italian and is easily recognised by the presence of the letter v in all parts. This letter does not appear as a regular part of any other tense.
To form the imperfect we take the infinitive, remove the re, then add the following endings:
| io ......vo |
| tu ......vi |
| lui/lei ......va |
| noi ......vamo |
| voi ......vate |
| loro ......vano |
There are not many exceptions to the rule. The key ones are the verb ESSERE which becomes:
| ero |
| eri |
| era |
| eravamo |
| eravate |
| eraano |
and FARE which becomes:
| facevo |
| facevi |
| faceva |
| facevamo |
| facevate |
| facevano |
The Imperfect tense is used in the following cases:
1. Description in the past: La casa era molto grande.
2. Describing the weather at a time in the past: Faceva bello.
3. Giving an opinion in the past, era + adjective: Era magnifico.
4. Talking about something that used to happen regularly in the past: Ogni anno andavamo in Italia per natale e facevamo lo sci.
5. Talking about how things used to be over a period of time in the past: A quell'epoca, mio padre lavorava a Londra e mia madre era casalinga.
6. Saying what was happening, when something else happened; (one action (in the perfect tense) cuts across another on-going one (in the imperfect):
Leggevo il giornale quando mio padre è entrato nel salotto.
Mia madre lavorava nel giardino, quando il telefono ha suonato