Imperfect

An imperfect verb is a verb that has imperfect or imperfective aspect. In English, the progressive tense is used this way. It is formed by using a form of “to be” as a helping verb with the participle form. The progressive tense has the idea of ongoing, continuous action.

• I am running

• He/she/it is running.

• They are running

cf. periphrastic

Greek:

The imperfect tense is roughly equivalent to the English progressive tense. It is past time and internal aspect. Imperfects always take an augment but never a tense formative. Study chapter 21 in BBG. more

Hebrew:

Imperfects (also called YQTLs or prefix forms) are distinguished by the fact that they conjugate by adding prefixes, as opposed to affix forms which add suffixes. Start here. See also the charts in the back of KHW p432 or this video.