The Imperfect Tense: Regular Verbs

Preterite You have already learned to talk about the past using the preterite tense for actions that began and ended at a definite time.

Preterite Ana cantó en la fiesta anoche. Ana sang at the party last night. (Completed past action.)

Imperfect The imperfect tense is another way to talk about the past. We use it to describe actions without any indication of their beginning or end.

Imperfect Ana cantaba. Ana was singing. (No indication of beginning or end.)

Imperfect We use the imperfect to talk about actions that happened repeatedly in the past, or habitual past actions. In English we often say “used to” or “would” to express this idea.

Imperfect Generalmente caminaban mucho. Generally they would walk a lot.

Imperfect Jugaban con otros niños de la familia. They used to play with other children in the family.

Imperfect Expressions such as generalmente, a menudo, muchas veces, todos los días, siempre, and nunca can cue us to use the imperfect.

The imperfect tense may also be used for: Describing physical conditions or characteristics of people in the past – María era muy popular. Time or age in the past – Ana tenía 15 años. Eran las tres y media.

Here are the endings for the –AR verbs Yo aba Tú abas Él Ella aba Ud. Nosotros ábamos Ellos Ellas aban Uds.

Here are the endings for the –ER & -IR verbs Yo ía Tú ías Él Ella ía Ud. Nosotros íamos Ellos Ellas ían Uds.

Imperfect Let’s practice the forms of -ar verbs in the imperfect. Notice the accent mark on the nosotros form.

CAMINAR (to walk) Yo caminaba Tú caminabas Él Ella caminaba Ud. Nos. caminábamos Ellos Ellas caminaban Uds.

Imperfect Since the yo and the Ud./él/ella forms are the same, we often use the subject pronouns to avoid confusion.

USAR (to use) Yo usaba Tú usabas Él Ella usaba Ud. Nos. usábamos Ellos Ellas usaban Uds.

JUGAR (to play) Yo jugaba Tú jugabas Él Ella jugaba Ud. Nos. jugábamos Ellos Ellas jugaban Uds.

Imperfect Now let’s practice the -er/-ir verb endings in the imperfect tense.

COMER (to eat) Yo comía Tú comías Él Ella comía Ud. Nos. comíamos Ellos Ellas comían Uds.

VIVIR (to live) Yo vivía Nos. vivíamos Tú vivías Él Ellos Ellas vivían Ella vivía Ud. Nos. vivíamos Ellos Ellas vivían Uds.

ser ir ver Irregular Verbs in the Imperfect: era iba veía eras ibas veías éramos íbamos veíamos eran iban veían

The imperfect form of hay is había (there was; there were; there used to be). Like hay, había can be followed by a singular or plural noun. Había un solo médico en la sala. There was only one doctor in the room. Había dos pacientes allí. There were two patients there.