Irregular Verbs in the Imperfect (ser, ir, and ver)

Fortunately, with almost every verb conjugation having significant irregularities, there are only 3 verbs in Spanish that are irregular in the imperfect tense. They are ser, ir, and ver.

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

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

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

You'll notice immediately when conjugating these verbs the crux of their irregularities. Also, many students wonder why the verb ver is considered irregular; on first glance, it DOES appear regular in its conjugation.

However, if you dissect it a little further, then you'll see that if we were to follow the regular pattern of conjugation, then ver SHOULD conjugate like vía, vías, etc. Remember, when a verb is conjugated, we strive to maintain as much as possible the sound of its original root form.

Funnily enough, the root of the verb ver, when the suffix is dropped, is v-. The verb ir has NO root. This is a very interesting and phenomenal evolution of the Spanish language.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel