IntencióN: To understand how to form the imperfect tense in spanish El imperfecto IntencióN: To understand how to form the imperfect tense in spanish
The imperfect tense The first past tense that you learnt in Spanish was the preterite tense. This describes single completed actions that took place at a particular time in the past and had a clear beginning and end. You are now going to learn the imperfect tense. This has two main uses: 1. To say what someone used to do or what used to happen over a longer and vaguer time frame (i.e. when I was little) 2. To describe a scene or say what something was like. For example: Llovía mucho y la gente era antipática (It was raining a lot and the people were unpleasant).
The imperfect tense Fortunately, the imperfect is fairly easy to form. It has two sets of endings and only three irregulars. The endings are as follows: hablar comer decidir yo tú él/ella nosotros vosotros ellos/as hablaba hablabas hablábamos hablabais hablaban comía comías comíamos comíais comían decidía decidías decidíamos decidíais decidían
The imperfect tense The three irregulars are: Ser (to be) Ir (to go) Ser (to be) Ir (to go) Ver (to see) yo tú él/ella nosotros vosotros ellos/as era eras éramos erais eran iba ibas íbamos ibais iban veía veías veíamos veíais veían
¿Cómo eras cuando eras joven? ¿Como eras? ¿Como era tu personalidad? ¿Que (no) te gustaba hacer? ¿Que estudiabas al instituto? ¿Que hacias con tu familia?