The Imperfect Tense

The imperfect tense is another version of the past tense used by Spanish speakers. This tense is used to express an action that is considered ongoing in the past with no definite reference points for a beginning or an end. We use the imperfect tense if we are describing some repeated actions that occurred in the past, or ones that are still potentially ongoing. Look for clues when debating whether or not to use the imperfect versus the preterit. Some adverbial phrases like todos los días(every day), siempre (always), and muchas veces (many times) all give rise to the necessity of the imperfect tense in Spanish.

We use the imperfect in English with the addition of the words was or used to. The following sentences employ the imperfect in English:

I used to ride my bike to school.
Diana was boiling water for the noodles.
I was reading the newspaper when my house caught on fire.

All of the above examples don't specify an ending point to the action, so the imperfect is used. The imperfect can be a great way to describe something in the past (like your boyhood memories), and set up a story-telling scenario in which you can describe to somebody what was happening at the moment something else occurred.

Conjugating verbs into their infinitive formats is actually one of the most easy tasks in Spanish grammar. Drop the suffix of the infinitive like you were going to conjugate the verb in the present tense. Then, when you're left with the root of the verb, you add a set of imperfect endings. With the exception of three verbs, ser, ver, and ir, all conjugations follow the same formula.

For -ar verbs:

hablar to speak
yo hablaba
tú hablabas
él, ella, Ud. hablaba
nosotros hablábamos
vosotros hablabais
ellos, ellas, Uds. hablaban


You will notice that the first and third person singular suffix is the same. For -er/-ir verbs, there is a different suffix to tack on, but they follow the same configuration. The first person and third person singular conjugations are also the same:

leer to read
yo leía
tú leías
él, ella, Ud. leía
nosotrs leíamos
vosotrs leíais
ellos, ellas, Uds. leían


salir to leave
yo salía
tú salías
él, ella, Ud. salía
nosotros salíamos
vosotros salíais
ellos, ellas, Uds. salían


To finish off the imperfect tense set, we recall that there are three(3) irregular imperfect verbs. You must memorize them, since they don't have a static conjugation pattern.


ser to be
yo era
tú eras
él, ella, Ud. era
nosotros éramos
vosotros erais
ellos, ellas, Uds. eran


ir to go
yo iba
tú ibas
él, ella, Ud. iba
nosotros íbamos
vosotros ibais
ellos, ellas, Uds. iban



ver to see
yo veía
tú veías
él, ella, Ud. veía
nosotros veíamos
vosotros veíais
ellos, ellas, Uds. veían


There are many more concepts employed by the imperfect tense, which will appear in more of our later blogs. In the meantime,

¡Sigue estudiando!

Professor Joel