Purpose
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate regular verbs in the imperfect tense and understand its core use for ongoing or habitual past actions.
Lesson Explanation
Where the preterite (previous two lessons) marks a completed action, the imperfect describes ongoing, habitual, or background actions in the past — genuinely closer to English “used to” or “was …ing.”
-AR verbs, modeled on hablar:
hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablabais, hablaban -ER and -IR verbs share identical imperfect endings, modeled on comer and vivir:
comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían vivía, vivías, vivía, vivíamos, vivíais, vivían
A genuinely rare and useful fact: the imperfect has only three irregular verbs in all of Spanish — ser, ir, and ver:
ser: era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran ir: iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban ver: veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían
Examples: Cuando era niño, jugaba en el parque todos los días. (When I was a child, I used to play in the park every day.) — note both verbs here are imperfect, describing an ongoing state and a habitual action.
Practice Questions
1. What kind of past actions does the imperfect describe, in contrast to the preterite?
View Answer
Ongoing, habitual, or background actions.
2. What two English phrases is the imperfect genuinely closest to?
View Answer
“Used to” and “was …ing.”
3. Conjugate “hablar” in the imperfect for “yo.”
View Answer
Hablaba.
4. Conjugate “comer” in the imperfect for “yo.”
View Answer
Comía.
5. Do -er and -ir verbs share identical imperfect endings?
View Answer
Yes.
6. How many irregular verbs exist in the imperfect tense, total?
View Answer
Three — ser, ir, and ver.
7. Conjugate “ser” in the imperfect for “yo.”
View Answer
Era.
8. Conjugate “ir” in the imperfect for “yo.”
View Answer
Iba.
9. Conjugate “ver” in the imperfect for “yo.”
View Answer
Veía.
10. Write “When I was a child” using the imperfect.
View Answer
Cuando era niño.
11. Conjugate “hablar” in the imperfect for “nosotros.”
View Answer
Hablábamos.
12. Conjugate “vivir” in the imperfect for “ellos.”
View Answer
Vivían.