Imperfect tense in Spanish

Uses of the imperfect past tense in Spanish

The imperfect tense in Spanish is a past tense used to describe repeated or habitual actions that have no reference to a beginning or an end.

Cuando era niña, me gustaba jugar con mis hermanas.

•      When I was young, I liked to play with my sisters.

Rudolfo leía todos los días.

•      Rudolfo read every day.

It is also used to describe events or actions that were in progress.

Mario cocinaba mientras Tania le leía la receta.

•      Mario was cooking while Tania was reading him the recipe.

Estábamos en la casa.

•      We were in the house.

The imperfect is also used to describe characteristics and states (or conditions) in the past with no reference to a beginning or an end.

Tenía muchos amigos.

•      I had a lot of friends.

Ellos estaban enfermos.

•      They were sick.

Conjugations of the imperfect tense in Spanish

Regular verbs – To conjugate the imperfect tense, remove the infinitive ending and add the following endings.

-ar		-er		-ir
buscar (to look for)		comer (to eat)		escribir  (to write)
busc aba	busc ábamos	com ía	com íamos	escrib ía	escrib íamos
busc abas	busc abais	com ías	com íais	escrib ías	escrib íais
busc aba	busc aban	com ía	com ían	escrib ía	escrib ían

Irregular imperfect tense verbs in Spanish- There are only three irregular conjugations in the imperfect.

ir (to go)		ser (to be)		ver (to see)
iba	íbamos	era	éramos	veía	veíamos
ibas	ibais	eras	erais	veías	veíais
iba	iban	era	eran	veía	veían