Imperfect Active Indicative and Imperfect of the Verb “to be”

Aspect of the Imperfect The aspect of the imperfect tense is imperfective . In other words, the action is understood to be in progress, without reference to its final completion. Such an action may infer attempting, continuing, setting about, or beginning an action, depending on the context. As such, different English expressions are be required to translate the imperfect tense in different passages. For example, an imperfect tense might be translated by such English phrases as: was (do)ing was trying to (do) began (doing) used to (do) Uses of the Imperfect In contrast to the aorist tense, the imperfect tense is usually employed selectively with a more nuanced range of connotations. When you encounter a verb in the imperfect tense, you should treat it with special care and try to determine whether a more nuanced meaning is implied, on the basis of context. Here are some possibilities: