El imperfecto
You learned to use the preterite tense to talk about actions completed in the past. Now you will learn about the imperfect tense to describe events that occurred in the past: The imperfect is used: To speak about background events in a story To talk about something you used to do To speak about how old someone was To say what time it was To tell what the weather was like
-aba -ábamos -abas x -aban -ía -íamos -ías -ían To form the imperfect tense, you take the root of the verb (before the –ar, -er, or –ir ending) drop the ending, then add the following: AR ER/IR -aba -ábamos -abas x -aban -ía -íamos -ías -ían
Trabajar:
Trabajar: Trabajaba trabajábamos trabajabas trabajaba trabajaban
escribir:
escribir: escribía escribíamos escribías escribían
querer:
querer: quería queríamos querías querían
Irregulars: SER (these are the forms, not the endings!) era éramos eras eran
Irregulars: IR (these are the forms, not the endings!) iba íbamos ibas iban
Irregulars: VER (these are the forms, not the endings!) veía veíamos veías veían