7. The time in the past Forms. Once we have done that, we need to memorize the endings for each stem in order to conjugate all the forms of a verb. ), Quedaba con ella de vez en cuando hasta que cumplí los 18. → What would you like? You will start to get a good sense of which tenses are used the most often—and one of them will undoubtedly be the imperfect tense. (n.d.). ), Yo comía mucho más en aquella época. After so many years teaching Spanish, I can honestly say the imperfect is one of the easiest tenses in the Spanish language. (We always used to eat ice cream on Fridays. Cuando los indígenas (vivir) (I used to go have lunch at my grandma’s house every Saturday. Description of objects in the past If you don't know the correct answer, type '?' (I used to eat a lot more during that time. Yes, I'd like to receive Word of the Day emails from YourDictionary.com. The following expressions are typically used to express the Imperfect tense. People will see it as Author Name with your public flash cards. (I met up with her from time to time until I turned 18. Note: Try to use the correct written accents if you can e.g.
It is often equivalent to "was ___-ing" in English. (Many times I would work on weekends. The imperfect progressive, used in combination with the preterite, describes a past action in progress that is interrupted by another action. Completa los espacios con la forma correcta de los verbos en el pretérito o imperfecto. And that is great, because this is what the imperfect tense is mainly used for: talking about something that was happening or used to happen and providing information about the past. (María would frequently lie when she was little. a Charleston (revelar) Iban a recogerme pero se estropeó su coche. Both are formed by subtracting the infinitive ending (-ar, -er or -ir), and replacing it with another. If you want to say it is 3 a.m., you say Son las 3 de la mañana, and if you want to say it is April 15, you say Es 15 de abril. → My Grandmother was always very calm. ), Muchas veces trabajaba los fines de semana. ), En aquel tiempo, ninguno de nosotros tenía un ordenador.
We will never know. The last stop in our journey is getting to know the different uses this tense has in the Spanish language. → The pianist played while the choir sang. 6 To be: Ser, Estar, Tener, Hacer & Haber. The student was reading the book before the class. ), (This is what we have to do at school in Spain, by the way!). In Spanish, there are two simple past tenses: the preterite and the imperfect. → We were going to see the movie but it was sold out. ¿Qué deseaba? Note: Remember that in Spanish only 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. are singular. The imperfect and the preterite are the most frequently used among the past tenses—in fact, they are the most commonly used tenses in Spanish overall! → The bus would always pass by at 6:15 am.
Here are two examples, one for each ending, with this fact highlighted: yo olía tú olías él/ella/usted olía nosotros/as olíamos vosotros/as olíais ellos/as/ustedes olían, yo dormía tú dormías él/ella/usted dormía nosotros/as dormíamos vosotros/as dormíais ellos/ellas/ustedes dormían. Every time we learn a new Spanish tense, the first stop is always to divide the verbs into two main groups: the regular verbs and the irregular ones. Click here to get a copy. (Wendy was tall and had blue eyes.) The children were dancing at the birthday party. Even if you think that Spanish tenses are a nightmare, you should be thankful that you are not a Spanish native speaker and you do not have to memorize all the different Spanish tenses and moods and forget it all a couple of days later when your teacher prompts you: Segunda persona del plural del pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo del verbo morir. When an action is interrupted by another action in the preterite. or call: 1 646 895 6940 (USA). A very important verb here is soler (tend to, used to), which is always followed by an infinitive. YourDictionary definition and usage example. Periods of life. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp, "When to Use the Imperfect Tense in Spanish. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free! ), Íbamos a pescar a menudo cuando estábamos de vacaciones. Here are the imperfect tense conjugations of jugar (to play) with the pattern highlighted, so you can see this in action: yo jugaba tú jugabas él/ella/usted jugaba nostros/as jugábamos vosotros/as jugabais ellos/as/ustedes jugaban. ), Nos veíamos con frecuencia durante el verano. You may also wish to review the Spanish preterite. Veníamos a la cita programada. (Pedro used to sing the same song many times.
Before I go on, remember each Spanish verb falls into one of three conjugations depending on whether their infinitive ends in -ar (first conjugation), -er (second conjugation) or -ir (third conjugation). ), Generalmente iban a la playa por la mañana. While the preterite usually refers to something that has a specific time component, the imperfect tense is used more generally.