The imperfect tense

Look at the following 3 sentences.We ate at two every day

The hotel was very big

I used to live with my grandparents

What do they have in common?

Is this done in the same way in each sentence?All 3 of these English tenses can be translated by just 1 tense in Spanish. It is called…

The imperfect tense is used in Spanish to describe:

•Repeated actions in the past:

Comíamos a las dos todos los días.

(we ate at two every day.)

•Backgrounds details (what someone or something was like or was doing):

El hotel era muy grande.

( The hotel was very big.)

•What people used to do and what things used to be like:

Antes vivía con mis abuelos, pero ahora vivo sola.

( I used to live with my grandparents, but I live on my own now.)

Each of the following sentences contains an example of the imperfect tense.

Hablaba español y francés.

El hotel tenía una piscina climatizada.

Mis abuelos vivían en Madrid.

What is the first thing you notice about this tense?Look at the highlighted words in each sentence.

As a reminder to you, here is the imperfect Tense of –ar/-er/-ir

The endings

trabajar beber vivir

(yo) trabajaba bebía vivía

(tú) trabajabas bebías vivías

(él/ella) trabajaba bebía vivía

(nosotros)

trabajábamos

bebíamos

vivíamos

(vosotros)

trabajabais bebíais vivíais

(ellos) trabajaban bebían vivían

The irregular verbsser ir ver

(yo) era iba veía

(tú) eras ibas veías

(él/ella) era iba veía

(nosotros)

éramos íbamos veíamos

(vosotros)

erais ibais veíais

(ellos) eran iban veían

The imperfect tense of haber and hay (there is) is había (there was/were). Había is very useful for describing what things used to be like.

Había mucha gente en la tienda.

( There were a lot of people in the shop.)

Why is it important?

To tell a story in the past successfully you need to be able to use the imperfect for descriptions and repeated actions.

Things to watch out for

You use the preterite for single events in the past and the imperfect tense for repeated or continuous actions in the past.