Imperfetto (Imperfect Tense) is an essential past tense. It is the other most commonly used past tense form, along with Passato Prossimo.  Imperfetto is the tense used to express a continuous or habitual action in the past. It is also used in storytelling to describe events or situations that unfold over an undefined period of time.

Beyond simply continuous or habitual actions in the past, let's look at the different ways Imperfetto is used:

• Descriptions and settings

                    Anna era una donna bellissima.               - Anna was a beautiful woman   
                    Ieri faceva molto freddo.                             - It was very cold yesterday.

• Providing background to another action or expressing simultaneous actions

                     Mentre preparavo la cena, ha squillato il telefono. - While I was preparing dinner, the phone rang.

• Routines/Habits

​           [often used with certain adverbs of time]
                      Andavo spesso alla spiaggia.                - I often used to go to the beach. 
    

• In storytelling to depict scenes that don't have a beginning or end

​                      "Alla mattina, prima che s'alzasse il sole, Pirolo era al lavoro." - In the morning, before the sun rose, Pirolo was at work.

One way to approach Imperfetto is to think of it as a way to express "used to", "was/were", or "was/were [doing something]". If you can express or translate your thought using those English words (and still have it make sense), you should probably use Imperfetto.

Imperfetto is a simple tense (there is only one part to it), but, of course, we still have our regular and irregular verbs. 

REGULAR VERBS

Returning to our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conjugations (~ARE, ~ERE, ~IRE), we conjugate regular verbs into Imperfetto by following the same steps as when conjugating Presente Indicativo, but we instead add the Imperfect ending as follows:

PARLARE - to speak/to talk
​
io  parlavo                  (I used to speak)
tu parlavi                    (you used to speak)
lui                                  (he used to speak)
lei      }   parlava        (she used to speak)
​Lei                                (you [form] used to speak)

noi parlavamo          (we used to speak)
voi parlavate             (you all used to speak)

loro parlavano          (they used to speak)

---

PRENDERE - to take
​
io  prendevo                 (I used to take)
tu prendevi                   (you used to take)
lui                                     (he used to take)
lei      }   prendeva       (she used to take)
​Lei                                   (you [form] used to take)

noi prendevamo          (we used to take)
voi prendevate             (you all used to take)
​
loro prendevano          (they used to take)

---

CAPIRE - to speak/to talk
​
io  capivo                   (I used to understand)
tu capivi                     (you used to understand)
lui                                  (he used to understand)
lei      }   capiva          (she used to understand)
​Lei                                (you [form] used to understand)

noi capivamo          (we used to understand)
voi capivate             (you all used to understand)
​
loro capivano          (they used to understand)

IRREGULAR VERBS

Once again, irregular verb forms must simply be memorized; however, the good news is that you've already identified many irregular verbs from conjugating Presente Indicativo and Passato Prossimo. Perhaps even better news is that most verbs you've come to know as "irregular" conjugate in a regular pattern in Imperfetto​. There are actually few verbs that conjugate irregularly in Imperfetto,  as you will notice below. 

ESSERE - to be
​io  ero
tu eri
lui 
lei      }   era 
​Lei 
noi eravamo 
voi eravate 
loro erano 

FARE - to do/make
​io  facevo
tu facevi
lui 
lei      }   faceva 
​Lei 
noi facevamo 
voi facevate 
loro facevano ​ 

DIRE - to say
​io  dicevo
tu dicevi
lui 
lei      }   diceva 
​Lei 
noi dicevamo 
voi dicevate 
loro dicevano 

BERE - to drink
​io  bevevo
tu bevevi
lui 
lei      }   beveva 
​Lei 
noi bevevamo 
voi bevevate 
loro bevevano 

TRADURRE - to translate
​io  traducevo
tu traducevi
lui 
lei      }   traduceva 
​Lei 
noi traducevamo 
voi traducevate 
loro traduc​evano