USE OF THE INDICATIVE IMPERFECT

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Is a simple tense of the indicative mood, it has regular and irregular forms.

These are the main uses of the indicative imperfect:

• indicates a reccuring action in the past

  Example:
  "Marco andava spesso a Bologna per lavoro."

• indicates a continuative action

  Example:
  "Quel giorno Marco giocava a tennis."

• indicates an action contemporary to another action in the past

  Example:
  "Quando hanno suonato, Marco ha detto che andava lui ad aprire."

• in the spoken language takes the place of the past conditional

  Example:
  "Marco ha detto ieri che oggi faceva (avrebbe fatto) tutte le operazioni in banca."

• expresses the present in the simulation of childrens' games

  Example:
  "Facciamo finta che io ero Cristoforo Colombo."

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