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