El Imperfecto de los verbos
Talking about the past There are ____ past tenses in Spanish. If the action occurred in the______ and the speaker can tell precisely _____ the action occurred use the __________________. 2 PAST WHEN PRETERITE (pretréito) 2 2
Talking about the past If the action occurred in the______ and the there is no definite beginning or ending use the __________________. Las chicas hablaban en inglés. The girls used to speak in English (no definite beginning or end) PAST IMPERFECTO (imperfect) 3 3
PRETERITE The _________________ (past) tense is like a SNAPSHOT of what happened in the past. The _________________ (past) tense is like an ongoing film of what happened in the past. IMPERFECT
El imperfecto The peterite tells us _____________when an action took place. The imperfect tells us in ________________. specifically general
FORMATION OF IMPERFECT To conjugate regular –ar verbs in the imperfect 1. Drop the infinitive ending 2. Add “aba” aba ábamos abas abais aban
Por ejemplo: (-ar verbs) tomaba tomabas tomábamos tomabais tomaban tomar 7 7
Por ejemplo: (-ar verbs) trabaj trabaj aba ábamos abas abais aban trabajar 8 8
To conjugate regular –er/-ir verbs in the imperfect 1. Drop the infinitive ending 2. Add “ía” ía íamos ías íais ían
Por ejemplo: (-er / -ir verbs) comía comías comíamos comíais comían comer comía comías comíamos comíais comían 10
Por ejemplo: (-er/-ir verbs) viv ía ías viv íamos íais ían 11 11
ser=______________ 2. ir=_____________ Iba Íbamos Ibas Ibais iban Era 3 LOS IRREGULARES: There are only _________ irregular verbs in the imperfect. ser=______________ 2. ir=_____________ Used to be/was Used to go/was going Iba Íbamos Ibas Ibais iban Era Éramos Eras Erais eran 3. ver= used to see/was seeing veía veíamos veías veíais veían
Some words and phrases indicate repetitive, vague or non-specific time frames, and therefore signal the use of the imperfect. a menudo (often) a veces (sometimes) cada día (every day) cada semana (every week) cada mes (every month) cada año (every year) con frecuencia (frequently) de vez en cuando (from time to time) en aquella época (at that time) frecuentemente (frequently) generalmente (usually) muchas veces (many times) mucho (a lot) nunca (never) por un rato (for awhile) siempre (always) tantas veces (so many times) todas las semanas (every week) todos los días (every day) todo el tiempo (all the time) varias veces (several times)