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LISTEN
Imperfect tense is used to describe continuing or incomplete actions
in the past.
This tense tells about actions without saying when they begin or end. Talk about actions that happened repeatedly
in the past or something that you used to do as a matter of habit. It is also used to speak how old someone was, to say what
date and time it was, and what people were doing when something else occurred.
VERB CONJUGATION IN THE
IMPERFECT
The endings to form the imperfect tense of regular verbs are:
-ar
verbs
Saltar to jump
Yo saltaba
Tú saltabas
Él/ella/usted saltaba
Nosotros(as) saltábamos
Vosotros(as) saltabais
Ellos/ellas/ustedes
saltaban
More -ar verbs conjugated in the imperfect tense:
Bailar (to dance)→ bailaba,
bailabas, bailaba, bailábamos, bailaban
Cantar (to sing)→ cantaba,
cantabas, cantaba, cantábamos, cantaban
-er verbs
Comer
to jump
Yo comía
Tú comías
Él/ella/usted comía
Nosotros(as) comíamos
Vosotros(as)
comíais
Ellos/ellas/ustedes comían
More -er and -ir verbs conjugated in the imperfect tense:
Tener (to have)→ tenía, tenías,
tenía, teníamos, tenían
Beber (to drink)→ bebía,
bebías, bebía, bebíamos, bebían
Vivir (to live)→ vivía,
vivías, vivía, vivíamos, vivían
Dormir (to sleep)→ dormía,
dormías, dormía, dormíamos, dormían
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*Some words like mientras, cada, siempre, usualmente, generalmente,
and normalmente are a suggestion for using the imperfect tense.
Sentences in the imperfect tense.
To describe continuing or incomplete actions:
Yo cantaba mi canción favorita
I was singing my favorite song
Ellos estaban cansados They
were tired
To talk about actions that happened repeatedly in the past or something that you
used to do as a matter of habit:
Cada fin de semana íbamos al río
every weekend we used to go to the river
Yo estudiaba mucho I used to study a lot
To indicate what date and time it was and to speak about how
old someone was (imperfect) when something happened (preterite):
Eran las cinco de la
tarde y de repente empezó a llover It was 5:00PM, and suddenly started to rain
Era un domingo a las ocho de la mañana It was Sunday at 8:00AM
Yo tenía quince años cuando fui a Cartagena I was 15 years old
when I went to Cartagena
To say what people were doing when something else occurred:
Isabel comía cuando sonó el teléfono Isabel was
eating when the telephone rang
Gisela cantaba mientras Liliana estudiaba Gisela
was singing while Liliana was studying
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