Perfecting Your Knowledge of the Spanish Imperfect Tense

Oh, the Spanish tenses! Aren’t they both fascinating and baffling? The Spanish imperfect tense is no exception.

Below, we’ll go over what the Spanish imperfect tense is all about, including its uses. We’ll also go over its conjugation and some phrases that are often used with it.

What is the Spanish imperfect tense?

The imperfect or pretérito imperfecto is a Spanish tense used to discuss the past. But not just any past! The Spanish imperfect tense refers mainly to habitual actions in the past with no specific duration.

You can think of the imperfect as the tense to use when you mean you “used to” do something. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, there’s actually more to the imperfect.

Imperfect vs. Preterite

The main difficulty with the imperfect tense is figuring out if you need to use the imperfect or the preterite. The key is figuring out whether the action has a definitive completion time. If it doesn’t, you’re definitely going for the Spanish imperfect tense. If it does, you’ll have to put in a bit more work.

Let’s look at two examples:

• Trabajaba mientras almorzaba. (I worked while I had lunch.)
• Ayer trabajé mucho durante el almuerzo. (I worked a lot during lunch.)

These sentences might seem quite similar, but in the first one (imperfect), the actions are ongoing (work and lunch are happening simultaneously). Meanwhile, in the second sentence (preterite), we are talking about a completed action (trabajé) at a specific time in the past (ayer).

Expressions of frequency

Another way to detect this tense is through frequency expressions. Here are some of the ones used with the Spanish imperfect tense.

• Frecuentemente (frequently)
• Siempre (always)
• Todos los días (every day)
• A veces (sometimes)
• De vez en cuando (now and then)
• A menudo (often)

This tense has quite a few uses. But don’t worry! We’ll go over these in detail below.

When do we use the Spanish imperfect tense?

As we’ve mentioned, the Spanish imperfect tense has several uses. We’ll go over each of those below and include some examples.

For habitual actions in the past

This is the most straightforward use of the imperfect: habits or repeated actions in the past.

For example:

• Jugaba con mis amigos en el parque todas las tardes. (I used to/would play with my friends at the park every afternoon.)
• ¡Iba al gimnasio seis veces por semana! (I used to/would go to the gym six times a week!)

We don’t know when exactly the actions in the sentence took place. The focus is on them happening regularly.

For continuous actions in the past

We also use the Spanish imperfect tense for past actions that occur for an undefined period of time.

• De niño, le encantaban los dinosaurios. (He loved dinosaurs as a child.)
• Esa noche, me sentía tan mal. (I felt so bad that evening.)

Here, we don’t know how long the liking or the feeling lasted.

To describe the past

This tense can also signify a description of the past. This description can be of characteristics or feelings.

For example:

• La casa tenía muchísimas ventanas. (The house had a lot of windows.)
• Hacía mucho viento. (It was really windy.)
• ¡Estaba tan contenta! (She was so happy.)

For dates, times, and ages in the past

If you are specifying a date, age, or time sometime in the past, you’ll use the Spanish imperfect tense.

• Sí, me acuerdo, era sábado. (Yes, I remember, it was Saturday.)
• Tenía 36 años cuando te conoció. (He/She was 36 when he/she met you.)
• Eran las cinco de la mañana y la fiesta seguía. (It was 5am, and the party was still going on.)

For simultaneous events in the past

While in English, you might use past continuous for two activities happening at the same time in the past (I was having dinner while my daughter was sleeping.), in Spanish, we use the imperfect tense.

• Mientras bailaba, pensaba en la cena. (While I was dancing, I was thinking about dinner.)
• Yo trabajaba, mientras que él jugaba videojuegos. (I was working while he was playing video games.)

To express courtesy

You can also use the Spanish imperfect tense for politeness when asking for a favor. In this case, the tense has a present meaning instead.

For example:

• ¿Me podría prestar el auto? (Could you lend me the car?)
• Quería pedirle un favor. (I would like to ask you for a favor.)

For the future in the past

Finally, we can also use the imperfect to talk about a future plan that will no longer take place.

• Iba a visitar a mi madre el año que viene. (I was going to visit my mom next year.)
• La operación iba a ser el lunes que viene. (The surgery was going to be next Monday.)

Conjugating verbs in the Spanish imperfect tense

Now that we know when to use the Spanish imperfect tense, it’s time we learn how to conjugate it.

In this section, we’ll cover the regular conjugation for this tense and then give some examples of irregular verbs.

Before we get to that, there is one thing we should clarify. For first- and third-person singular, it is best to add the subject before the tense with this particular tense. Most other tenses don’t require this, but as the first- and third-person formations for the Spanish imperfect tense are the same, you need to specify which one you’re talking about to avoid confusion.

Regular verbs

As you might remember, verbs in Spanish have three different endings: -AR, -ER and -IR. For the Spanish imperfect tense, verbs ending in -ER and -IR are conjugated the same way, as shown below.

Subject	AR: hablar	ER/IR: comer
Yo (I)	hablaba	comía
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	hablabas	comías
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	hablaba	comía
Nosotros (We)	hablábamos	comíamos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	hablabais hablaban	comíais comían
Ellos (Them)	hablaban	comían

Now let’s look at a couple of examples in a sentence:

• Cuando era pequeña, hablaba con mi amiga invisible. (When I was little, I used to talk to my imaginary friend.)
• ¿Te acuerdas cuando comías solo carne con arroz? (Do you remember when you only used to eat meat and potatoes?)

Irregular verbs

You should be used to irregular verbs in Spanish tenses by now. The imperfect is no different.

We’ll go over the classics ser (to be) and ir (to go) that change quite abruptly. We’ll also ver (to see) as an example of a “less” irregular verbs.

Ser (to be)

Yo (I)	era
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	eras
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	era
Nosotros (We)	éramos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	erais eran
Ellos/Ellas (Them)	eras

Let’s see a couple of examples:

• Era la mejor de su clase. (She was the best in her class.)
• Era alto y pelirrojo. (He was tall and had red hair.)

You can also read this article on the complete conjugation of ser.

Ir (to go)

Yo (I)	iba
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	ibas
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	iba
Nosotros (We)	íbamos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	ibais iban
Ellos/Ellas (Them)	iban

For example:

• Íbamos de vacaciones todos los veranos. (We used to go on holiday every summer.)
• Iban a mudarse este fin de semana. (They were going to move this weekend.)

If you want to go places, take a look at the full ir conjugation.

Ver (to see)

Yo (I)	veía
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	veías
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	veía
Nosotros (We)	veíamos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	veías veían
Ellos/Ellas (Them)	veían

Here are a couple of examples:

• No veía muy bien sin lentes. (I couldn’t see very well without my glasses.)
• ¿Veían novelas de chicas? (Did you use to watch soaps when you were young?)

If you want to see more, here is the entire verb conjugation.

Common expressions with the Spanish imperfect tense

In addition to the expressions of frequency we saw at the beginning of this article, there are other phrases we often use with the Spanish Imperfect tense. We’ll take a look at these in this section.

De pequeño/a

There are several phrases you can use to indicate a time when one was young or younger.

• De pequeña/o (when I was little)
  • De pequeña jugaba mucho con aviones. (When I was little, I used to play a lot with airplanes.)
• De niño/a (when I was a child)
  • De niño, era muy travieso. (I was very naughty as a child.)
• De joven (when I was young)
  • De joven me gustaba la música alternativa. (When I was young, I liked alternative music.)

Cuando tenía…

We also use phrases like “When I was X years old” with the Spanish imperfect tense to talk about what happened when we were a certain age.

• Cuando tenía 3 años, me caí de una hamaca. (When I was 3, I fell off a swing.)
• Cuando tenía 25, me gané una beca para estudiar en Canadá. (When I was 25, I won a scholarship to study in Canada.)

En aquella época

Finally, we use phrases that indicate a specific historical period with this tense.

• En aquella época (Back then)
  • En aquella época, las faldas no podían ser más cortas que la rodilla. (Back then, skirts could go no lower than your knees.)
• En aquellos tiempos (Back in those days)
  • En aquellos tiempos, vivíamos muy mal. (Back in those days, we lived very poorly.)

Spanish imperfect tense: final thoughts

We hope the imperfect tense doesn’t give you too many headaches. And that you finish this article with a clear idea of how to use it.

If you are hungry for more grammar knowledge, we recommend this overview of all Spanish tenses.