The Imperfect Tense in Spanish
In an earlier lesson, we covered the Spanish preterite, the simple past verb tense. Today we’re going to look at another form of past tense: the imperfect tense. While the preterite expresses a fact or action that took place at one moment in the past and ended in the past, the imperfect tense describes a continuous or habitual action or the state of things over a long period of time.
The Imperfect of Regular –AR Verbs
Example: pagar – to pay.
Pronoun | Ending | Conjugation |
yo – I
|
aba | pagaba |
tú – you (familiar)
|
abas | pagabas |
él, ella – he, she
usted – you (formal) |
aba | pagaba |
nosotros, nosotras – we
|
ábamos | pagábamos |
vosotros, vosotras – you (plural familiar) | abais | pagabais |
ellos, ellas – they
ustedes – you (plural formal) |
aban | pagaban |
The imperfect form of a verb can be translated a few different ways:
Nadie pagaba tal cantidad.
Nobody used to pay such a sum.
Nobody paid such a sum.
Nobody was paying such a sum.
Often the imperfect is indicated by adverbial expressions of time that help describe recurrent and continuous past actions. Also note that subject pronouns are usually included with the first person singular and third persons singular and plural for clarity:
Siempre pensaba en sus padres.
He was always thinking of his parents.
The Imperfect of Regular –ER and –IR Verbs
As with the preterite, the imperfect tenses of regular –er and –ir verbs are the same.
Example: vender – to sell.
Pronoun | Ending | Conjugation |
yo – I
|
ía | vendía |
tú – you (familiar)
|
ías | vendías |
él, ella – he, she
usted – you (formal) |
ía | vendía |
nosotros, nosotras – we
|
íamos | vendíamos |
vosotros, vosotras – you (plural familiar) | íais | vendíais |
ellos, ellas – they
ustedes – you (plural formal) |
ían | vendían |
Example: vivir – to live.
Pronoun | Ending | Conjugation |
yo – I
|
ía | vivía |
tú – you (familiar)
|
ías | vivías |
él, ella – he, she
usted – you (formal) |
ía | vivía |
nosotros, nosotras – we
|
íamos | vivíamos |
vosotros, vosotras – you (plural familiar) | íais | vivíais |
ellos, ellas – they
ustedes – you (plural formal) |
ían | vivían |
Irregular Imperfects
There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect: ser, ir, and ver.
Pronoun | Ser
to be |
Ir
to go |
Ver
to see |
yo – I
|
era | iba | veía |
tú – you (familiar)
|
eras | ibas | veías |
él, ella – he, she
usted – you (formal) |
era | iba | veía |
nosotros, nosotras – we
|
éramos | íbamos | veíamos |
vosotros, vosotras – you (plural familiar) | erais | ibias | veíais |
ellos, ellas – they
ustedes – you (plural formal) |
eran | iban | veían |
Tag:Imperfect Tense, Spanish, Verbs