Español — Imperfect tense
The imperfect describes the past without focusing on where it began or ended: habits, ongoing states, descriptions, age and background. It has just two ending sets, -aba and -ía, and only three irregular verbs: era, iba, veía.
How it works
Drop the infinitive ending and add -aba endings to -ar verbs (hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablabais, hablaban) and -ía endings to -er/-ir verbs (comía, vivía). The stressed í in -ía verbs always carries a written accent, and the yo and él/ella forms are identical (yo comía = él comía).
Examples
| Form / example | Use / meaning |
|---|---|
| Todos los días hablaba con mi abuela. | -ar ending -aba: repeated habit ('I used to talk every day'). |
| De niño comía muchas verduras. | -er/-ir ending -ía: past habit ('as a child I ate lots of vegetables'). |
| La casa era grande y vieja. | era (ser, irregular): description of things and people. |
| Cada verano iba a la playa. | iba (ir, irregular): repeated movement, habit in the past. |
| Desde la ventana veía el mar. | veía (ver, irregular): the only irregularity is the kept e (veía, not vía). |
| Tenía diez años y estaba cansado. | Age (tenía diez años) and ongoing state (estaba cansado) as background. |
Good to know
Don't mix up the imperfect with the preterite. The imperfect sets the scene (Llovía cuando salí — 'It was raining when I left'): llovía is the ongoing background, salí is the single completed action. A common mistake is using the preterite for age or descriptions — say tenía diez años and era alto, never tuve diez años.