Unit 6: Imperfect Tense for 1st and 2nd Conjugation Verbs

Notes 6.1

Learning Goals: By the end of the lesson students will be able to:

1. Understand the concept of the imperfect tense.

2. Recognize verbs that are imperfect tense in either English or Latin.

3. Conjugate and translate a Latin verb in the imperfect tense.

4. Translate words, phrases, and sentences that use the imperfect tense.

Do you remember…?

• Tense, when it relates to grammar, indicates the time of the action.

• Present tense indicates an action happening now.

• English has 3 present tenses (simple, progressive, and emphatic).• I love• I am loving• I do love

It’s about time we learned a new tense!

• So far we have worked with verbs only in the present tense. We can deal with action happening only now.

• But what about some other tenses? How can we talk about something that has already happened?

Imperfect Tense

• Imperfect tense is kind of tricky because it doesn’t exist in English!

• The imperfect tense is a very specific kind of past tense. It shows a past action considered continuous, repeated, habitual, or customary.

Examples in English

• There are several things in English that come close to how the Latin Imperfect works, but none of them really do the job exactly.

• I used to travel on the Via Appia.

• I was traveling on the Via Appia.

• I kept on traveling on the Via Appia.

All of these examples show something that already happened, but it happened over a span of time.

Summary:

• Imperfect tense may be translated in 3 different ways:

“used to _____”

“kept on _____-ing”

“was _____-ing”

Imperfect tense in Latin• As always, there is a rule to follow!

• Does this sound familiar? • It should because it is the same rule as for the present

tense.

• How can this be? • If the rule is the same, then it must be that the endings

are different.

2nd p. part / drop the -re / add the endings

The endings:

-bam

-bas

-bat

-bamus

-batis

-bant

Look very carefully at the present tense endings and compare them to the imperfect tense endings. Do you see some similarities?

Present:-o/-m-mus-s -tis-t -nt

Imperfect: -bam -bamus -bas -batis -bat -bant

Do you see that the second set actually includes the first set? The only thing added is the tense sign –ba. This is the signal of the imperfect tense.

Anatomy of an ending!

bamus

Tense sign Personal ending

Let’s see how it works: 1st Conjugation:amo, -are, -avi, -atus – love

amabam – I was loving I used to love I kept on loving

amabas – you were loving you used to love you kept on

loving

amabat -- h/s/i was loving h/s/i used to love h/s/i kept on

loving

amabamus – we were loving we used to love we kept on loving

amabatis – you were loving you used to love you kept on

loving

amabant – they were loving they used to love they kept on

loving

2nd Conjugation:habeo, -ēre, -ui, -itus – have

habebam – I was having

I used to have

I kept on having

habebas – you were having

you used to have

you kept on having

habebat -- h/s/i was having

h/s/i used to have

h/s/i kept on having

habebamus – we were having

we used to have

we kept on having

habebatis – you were having

you used to have

you kept on having

habebant -- they were having

they used to have

they kept on having

My level of understanding Check for understanding

4I understand the concept of the imperfect tense; I can recognize a verb in the imperfect tense; AND I can conjugate 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs in the imperfect tense without my notes.

3I understand the concept of the imperfect tense; I can recognize a verb in the imperfect tense; AND I can conjugate 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs in the imperfect tense with my notes.

2 I understand the concept of the imperfect tense AND I can recognize a verb in the imperfect tense.

1 I understand the concept of the imperfect tense.

Quid agis? How are you doing?

Class Practice 6.1I. Provide the imperfect tense in the person

and number required by the subject.

1. dono (I)

2. monstro (we)

3. narro (you (sg))

4. rideo ( she)

5. porto (they)

6. clamo (you (pl))

7. ambulo (we)

8. laboro (I)

9. sedeo (he)

10.doceo (you (sg))

II. Translate the following sentence:Pueri fabulas de puellis narrabant.