The Imperfect- El imperfecto …another way of talking about the past.
Remember this? Weve already learned one way of talking about the past: the preterite. Its used to describe single actions that started and ended in the past. Examples: Tomaron el examen el lunes pasado. Gabriela recibió la mejor nota de todos los estudiantes. El año pasado, fui a Costa Rica de vacaciones. Lo pasé muy bien. Pedro se levantó, fue al baño, y se duchó.
The Imperfect For… actions repeated in the past unfinished actions in the past descriptions about the past a different verb tense, called the imperfect. is used to express these ideas Think about it: perfect means complete, so when a past action is incomplete, it is imperfect.
Expanded uses of the imperfect Use the imperfect to express actions, conditions, and events that: were in progress at some time in the past (was …ing). Miraba la tele. (I was watching TV.)
occurred repeatedly in the past (used to or would). De niño siempre tropezaba con los pies.
were anticipated or planned (was going to). Pensaba ir a la fiesta.
Also, use the imperfect to … describe people, places and situations in the past (was…, were…, had…). Cuando yo era muy joven tenía muchos amigos. Nos metíamos en tantos líos.
talk about a past action that has no specified beginning or end. Había muchos reporteros en la escena. *Había = there was, there were, there used to be and describes a situation that happened in the past Hubo = there was, there were but it is used to say that an event took place
describe the situation or background information leading up to an event Manejaba mi coche y hablaba por teléfono cuando…
Whats more, the imperfect is used to express… what the time or weather was like when something happened. Eran las cinco de la tarde y había una tormenta muy grande.
a description of physical, mental and emotional states of a person or thing when something happened. Me dolía la pierna y mamá estaba muy preocupada por mí.
Common Imperfect cue words siempre muchas veces de vez en cuando nunca a veces casi siempre todos los días cada…(mes, año, verano…) estar (triste, contento, cansado…) parecer (cansado, mal…) pensar querer sentirse (bien, enfermo…) tener (calor, frío, hambre, sed, sueño…)
Imperfect Verb Endings -AR verbs- -aba -abas -aba -ábamos -abais -aban -ER/-IR verbs- -ía -ías -ía -íamos -íais -ían Imperfect verbs do NOT stem-change Use of pronouns (reflexive, (in)direct is the same as with other tenses learned)
Conjugate the following verbs: examinar- examinaba examinabas examinaba examinábamos examinabais examinaban sentirse- me sentía te sentías se sentía nos sentíamos os sentíais se sentían moverse- me movía te movías se movía nos movíamos os movíais se movían * Subject nouns or pronouns are used to distinguish between 1 st & 3 rd person.
ONLY 3 Irregular Imperfect Verbs Ser- era eras era éramos erais eran Ir- iba ibas iba íbamos ibais iban Ver- veía veías veía veíamos veíais veían
Write the following in Spanish. 1.It was 11:00 in the morning. 2.It was very hot and sunny. 3.Sue and her boyfriend, Ted, were walking in the park. 4.He was very tall, dark and handsome. 5.Sue was (felt) quite nervious, but happy.