There are three important rules to remember in this chapter:

• (1) the imperfect tense shows incomplete ─ that is, unfinished, repeated, or habitual ─ action in the past;
• (2) the sign for the imperfect tense in Latin is -ba-;
• (3) the ablative of time shows a point in time and uses no preposition.

This is the shortest chapter and, assuming you’ve done your work in the past, the easiest lesson we’ll cover in all of beginning Latin. Since we’ve already incorporated the imperfect tense in earlier chapters, there’s nothing new to learn here. Here are the imperfect-tense endings in Latin. I’m sure ─ or at least I hope ─ you remember them. Adding these endings to a verb base creates a sense of “was doing, used to do, kept on doing.” Remember, please do not use “did” to translate the imperfect yet. Here is a chart showing one verb belonging to each of the four-and-a half conjugations in the imperfect tense.

The ablative of point in time. Latin uses the ablative case without a preposition to express the specific point in time at which an event occurred, for instance, tempore illo, “at that time,” or horis paucis, “in a few hours.” To indicate the same, English uses “in, within, on, at.” We’ll later learn that the accusative case is used also without a preposition to express duration of time, for example, tempus illud, “for ─ meaning ‘for the duration of’ ─ that time.” The relationship between the ablative and the accusative here is comparable to the relationship in verbs between the perfect and the imperfect tense: a completed action (a point in time) versus an ongoing action(duration of time). Expressed geometrically, it is the same relationship between a point and an open-ended line segment.

And that’s it. That’s the end of the grammar for this chapter. How beautiful is life! 

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