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)

Conjugation:

The Spanish Imperfect tense (El Imperfecto) is remarkably regular in its formation, making it one of the more straightforward Spanish tenses to learn from a structural perspective. Unlike some other past tenses, there are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect, and the regular patterns are highly consistent.

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:

-AR Verbs (First Conjugation)

Taking HABLAR (to speak) as our model:

• yo hablaba
• tú hablabas
• él/ella/usted hablaba
• nosotros hablábamos
• vosotros hablabais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes hablaban

This pattern applies to all regular -ar verbs. For example:

• trabajar (to work): trabajaba, trabajabas, trabajaba...
• estudiar (to study): estudiaba, estudiabas, estudiaba...
• caminar (to walk): caminaba, caminabas, caminaba...

Notice how the stem (habl-, trabaj-, estudi-, camin-) remains unchanged throughout the conjugation. This consistency makes -ar verbs particularly straightforward in the imperfect.

-ER and -IR Verbs (Second and Third Conjugations)

An interesting feature of the imperfect is that -er and -ir verbs share the same endings. Let's see this with COMER (to eat) and VIVIR (to live):

For -ER verbs like COMER:

• yo comía
• tú comías
• él/ella/usted comía
• nosotros comíamos
• vosotros comíais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes comían

For -IR verbs like VIVIR:

• yo vivía
• tú vivías
• él/ella/usted vivía
• nosotros vivíamos
• vosotros vivíais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes vivían

Additional examples for -ER verbs:

• beber (to drink): bebía, bebías, bebía...
• correr (to run): corría, corrías, corría...
• aprender (to learn): aprendía, aprendías, aprendía...

Additional examples for -IR verbs:

• escribir (to write): escribía, escribías, escribía...
• subir (to go up): subía, subías, subía...
• recibir (to receive): recibía, recibías, recibía...

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:

SER (to be)

• yo era
• tú eras
• él/ella/usted era
• nosotros éramos
• vosotros erais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes eran

IR (to go)

• yo iba
• tú ibas
• él/ella/usted iba
• nosotros íbamos
• vosotros ibais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes iban

VER (to see)

• yo veía
• tú veías
• él/ella/usted veía
• nosotros veíamos
• vosotros veíais
• ellos/ellas/ustedes veían

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.

Formation Tips and Tricks

1. Remember that -ar verbs use -aba endings, while both -er and -ir verbs use -ía endings.
2. The first and third person singular forms (yo/él/ella/usted) are always identical in the imperfect.
3. Apart from the three irregular verbs (ser, ir, ver), all other verbs follow these regular patterns without exception.
4. The stress in pronunciation always falls on the same syllable as the written accent, when present.

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.)