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.)

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.)

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.)

Regular 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

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

Exercises

1) Write the imperfect form for each verb in parenthesis to complete each sentence.

Example: El guitarrista (ser) muy guapo. -> era

1. Generalmente, nosotros (ir) al cine los sábados.  
2. You (correr) mucho por el parque.
   
3. Mis amigos y yo (salir) por el centro todas las semanas. 
   
4. ¿(Ir) tú a muchas películas cuando (ser) joven?
   
5. Mi madre (vivir) en Londres.        
   
6. Vosotros (pasar) mucho tiempo en el café.  
   
7. Amalia (escribir) cartas.        
   
8. Mis hermanas (jugar) con sus muñecas cuando (ser) niñas.  
   
9. Yo (tomar) café todas las mañanas.   
10. Usualmente, la clase (terminar) a las nueve.   
    

1. íbamos
   
2. corría
3. salíamos
4. Ibas, eras
5. vivía
6. pasabais
7. escribía
8. jugaban, eran
9. tomaba
10. terminaba