imperfect tense
A grammatical term used in the description of Romance languages (e.g., French imparfait) and sometimes applied to other languages with a similar past imperfective form.
The French imperfect tense expresses ongoing states or habits in the past.
Compound of 半 (half) and 過去 (past), literally 'half-past', referring to a tense that is not fully completed in the past.