Overview
The imperfect tense (el imperfecto) is one of the several past tenses in Spanish. It is used mainly to describe past habitual actions or to set the scene in the past. Below you will find when to use it as well as how to conjugate it for regular and irregular verbs.
Uses
In General...
The imperfect can generally translate to be what someone was doing or used to do. It sets the background knowledge or scenery for a story.
1. Actions Repeated Habitually
These are the activities that you did over and over for a long period of undetermined time.
- Almorzábamos cada día. (We used to eat lunch together every day.)
- Todos los sábados las mujeres iban de compras. (Every Saturday the ladies would go shopping.)
Useful Phrases that Trigger the Imperfect | a menudo | often | frecuentemente | frequently | rara vez |
rarely
|
| a veces | sometimes | generalmente | usually | siempre | always |
| algunas veces | at times | mientras | while | tantas veces |
so many times
|
| cada día | every day | muchas veces | many times | todas las semanas | every week
|
| cada año | every year | mucho | a lot | todos los años | every year |
| casi nunca | almost never | por lo general | generally | todos los días | everyday |
de vez en cuando
| once in a while | por un rato | for a while | todo el tiempo |
all the time
|
2. Actions that Set the Stage for other Actions
The imperfect verb is interrupted by a preterit verb.
- Estaba durmiendo cuando el teléfono soñó. (I was sleeping when the telephone rang.)
- Estaba cociando la cena cuando entré la casa. (He was cooking dinner when I came in the house.)
3. Telling Time and Dates in the Past
- Era las tres de la tarde. (It was three o'clock in the afternoon.)
- Era el jueves, el 9 de mayo. (It was Thurday, the 19th of May.) (網頁上漏了 de, 只作 9 Mayo)
4. Describing a Scene or Person in the Past
- La niña tenía 4 años. (The little girl was 4 years old.)
- Mi profesor era alto y tenía el pelo ondulado. (My professor was tall and had wavy hair.)
- El campo era bella. (The countryside was beautiful.)
- Hacía calor esa noche. (It was hot that night.)
ondulado adj. undulating, rolling
5. Describing Mental/Emotional States or Desires in the Past
- Sentía feliz con mi trabajo nuevo. (I was happy with my new job.)
- Quería mudarme a otro país. (I wanted to move to another country.)
mudarse vr 1 (de casa) to move
2 (de ropa) to change one's clothesRegular Imperfect
There are only two sets of endings for regular imperfect verbs, onefor -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs. Simply remove theinfinitive ending and add the correct imperfect ending depending on thesubject of the action.
Regular Imperfect Verb Endings
| -ar verbs |
| -er and -ir verbs |
| yo | -aba |
| -ía |
| tú | -abas |
| -ías |
| usted, él, ella | -aba |
| -ía |
| nosotros | -ábamos |
| -íamos |
| vosotros | -abais |
| -íais |
| ustedes, ellos, ellas | -aban |
| -ían |
Ambiguous Endings
The 1st person and 3rd person singular have the same conjugation endings.
Context and subject pronouns will indicate the subject if it is ambiguous.
- Yo caminaba por el parque cada domingo. (I walked through the park every Sunday.)
- Mi abuela caminaba por el parque cada sábado. (My grandmother walked through the park every Saturday.)
- Yo tenía un perro. (I used to have a dog.)
- Mi vecino tenía un perro. (My neighbor used to have a dog.)
Irregular Imperfect
There are only three verbs with irregular conjugations in the imperfect. No stem-changes, no spelling-changes, only these three:
Irregular Conjugations
| ir (to go) |
| ser (to be) |
| ver (to see) |
|
| iba | íbamos | |
| veía veíamos |
|
| ibas | ibais | |
| veías veíais |
|
| iba | iban | |
| veía veían |
|
延伸閱讀：[西班牙語] 過去式 vs 未完成式
[西班牙語] 陳述法(過去)未完成式
Exercises
1) Write the imperfect form for each verb in parenthesis to complete each sentence.
Example: El guitarrista (ser) muy guapo. -> era
- Generalmente, nosotros (ir) al cine los sábados.
- You (correr) mucho por el parque.
- Mis amigos y yo (salir) por el centro todas las semanas.
- ¿(Ir) tú a muchas películas cuando (ser) joven?
- Mi madre (vivir) en Londres.
- Vosotros (pasar) mucho tiempo en el café.
- Amalia (escribir) cartas.
- Mis hermanas (jugar) con sus muñecas cuando (ser) niñas.
- Yo (tomar) café todas las mañanas.
- Usualmente, la clase (terminar) a las nueve.
UNESCO's World Heritage Site of Alcalá de Henares, Comunidad Autónoma, España. by Frank 2005.12.5Answers:- íbamos
- corría
- salíamos
- Ibas, eras
- vivía
- pasabais
- escribía
- jugaban, eran
- tomaba
- terminaba
http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100048/imperfect
The Spanish grammar lesson was taken from the website of SpanishDict.com at above stated URL. The copyright belongs to SpanishDict.com, which is not involved with, nor endorses the production of this blog.
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