Imperfect Past

The Imperfect tense (Pretérito Imperfecto) in Spanish is used to talk about ongoing or repeated actions in the past. It helps describe the background and provides details about past habits, conditions, and events with no specific beginning or end. Here's how to understand and use it:

Usage:

1. Describing the weather in the past:

   Hacía sol casi todos los días en julio. (It was sunny almost every day in July)

2. Describing a repeated past action with an unspecified number of occurrences:

   Visitábamos a nuestros abuelos cada verano.(We used to visit our grandparents every summer)

3. Talking about what someone was doing at a specific moment in the past:

   ¿Qué hacías cuando te llamé? (What were you doing when I called you?)

4. Describing simultaneous actions in the past:

   Yo leía mientras mi hermano miraba la televisión (I was reading while my brother was watching TV.)

5. Expressing a past action that was interrupted by another action:

   Estudiábamos cuando de repente sonó el teléfono. (We were studying when suddenly the phone rang.)

6. Describing people, places, or situations in the past:

   Mi escuela era muy grande y tenía un hermoso jardín. (My school was very big and had a beautiful garden.)

7. Expressing age in the past:

   Cuando tenía ocho años, quería ser astronauta. (When I was eight years old, I wanted to be an astronaut.)

8. Talking about time in the past:

   Era la una de la tarde cuando empezó la película. (It was one o'clock in the afternoon when the movie started)

Signal words for the preterite perfect

Certain phrases and prepositions in Spanish often signal the use of the imperfecto tense. These include:

• Cuando (when)

  Cuando yo era niño, jugaba en el parque. (When I was a child, I used to play in the park.)

• Mientras (while)

  Mientras él estudiaba, yo veía la televisión. (While he was studying, I was watching TV.)

• Siempre (always)

  Siempre llovía en abril. (It always rained in April.)

• A menudo (often)

  A menudo visitábamos a nuestros abuelos. (We often visited our grandparents.)

• Usualmente (usually)

  Usualmente, ella llegaba temprano. (Usually, she arrived early.)

• Todos los días/semanas/meses/años (every day/week/month/year)

  Todos los días, yo comía frutas. (Every day, I ate fruits.)

• En esa época (at that time)

  En esa época, nosotros vivíamos en el campo. (At that time, we lived in the countryside.)

Conjugation:

Regular Verb Formations

In Spanish, we form the imperfect by removing the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, or -ir) and adding specific endings. Let's explore each pattern in detail:

The Three Irregular Verbs

One of the beautiful aspects of the imperfect tense is that it has only three irregular verbs. These are essential verbs that you'll use frequently:

Note that VER is only slightly irregular - it maintains the 'e' from its stem when adding the regular -ía endings.

Special Considerations

Stress and Accents

In the imperfect tense, pay special attention to written accents:

• All forms of -ía endings carry a written accent
• The nosotros form of -ar verbs (hablábamos) always carries an accent
• The vosotros form never carries an accent in the imperfect

Stem-Changing Verbs

Unlike in the present tense, stem-changing verbs (like pensar, poder, dormir) do not change their stems in the imperfect. They follow the regular patterns:

• pensar → pensaba, pensabas, pensaba...
• poder → podía, podías, podía...
• dormir → dormía, dormías, dormía...

This characteristic makes the imperfect even more straightforward than other tenses where these verbs show stem changes.

Examples:

Caminábamos por la playa cada mañana. (We would walk along the beach every morning.)
Estudiabas francés cuando eras niño. (You studied French when you were a child.)
Veíamos películas en ese cine viejo. (We used to watch movies in that old cinema.)
Ella siempre llevaba un sombrero elegante. (She always wore an elegant hat.)
Los pájaros cantaban y el sol brillaba. (The birds were singing and the sun was shining.)
Yo estudiaba español. (I used to study Spanish.)
Tú comías manzanas todos los días. (You would eat apples every day.)