The imperfect tense in Spanish describes actions that were ongoing, habitual, or descriptive in the past. It is used to talk about weather, habitual actions, emotions, age, time, dates for context, and descriptions. The imperfect tense conveys background information and sets the scene. It is formed by adding AR, ER, or IR endings to the verb stem, with yo, tú, él/ella/usted, and ellos/ellas/ustedes taking different endings. Only three verbs, ser, ir, and ver, are irregular in the imperfect.

1. El imperfecto

2. What is Imperfecto?
 Can translate to what someone was doing or used to do. It also sets the
background knowledge or scenery for a story..
Los verbos regulares
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams
AR endings ER endings IR endings
yo aba ía ía
tú abas ías ías
él, ella, ud. aba ía ía
nosotros ábamos íamos íamos
vosotros abais íais íais
ellos, ellas, uds. aban ían ían
All the nosotros forms have an accent.

3. Some key words to look out for
 Siempre: Always
 Todos los: Every
días, fines de semana (day, weekend)
 Cada: Each
 Many words ending in “mente”: Words ending in “ly” in English
(regularmente, generalmente, normalmente)
 A menudo: Often
 De vez en cuando: Once in a while
 A veces: At times
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

4. When it is used?
 Remember the cereal that used to be called the breakfast of champions?
With a slight change to the spelling, you get the
same sounding word but also a memory trick to
recall some of the reasons when one would
choose Imperfect (instead of preterit).
WHEATDD
(see it still sounds like Wheaties…)
It will make sense once you view the next slide.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

5. When is it used?
Weather (hacer,estar)
Habitual actions (used to…)
Emotions (I was happy)
Age (I was 5)
Time (ser)
Date (ser)
Description (scene, background information)
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

6. Weather
Hacer
Hacía sol cuando llegamos.
 It was sunny (at the moment) when we arrived.
Estar
No pude tomar la foto porque
estaba muy nublado.
 I couldn’t take the photo because it was
really cloudy.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

7. Habitual actions (used to do..)
Then…
Yo veía televisón cada día.
 I watched television every
day.
Now…
Yo estudiaba cada día.
I used to study everyday
(and I still do.)
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

8. Emotion
Yo estaba feliz.
 I was happy.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

9. Age
 La niña tenía cinco años.
 The girl was 5 years old.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

10. Time
 Eran las siete de la noche.
 It was seven o’clock at night.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

11. Date
 Siempre íbamos a la iglesia los domingos.
  We always used to go to church on Sunday.
 Era el 16 de mayo, cuando se casaron.
 It was May 16th, when they married.
(note expressing the date is in the
imperfect. The action that happened on
that date is in the preterit.)
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

12. Description
 El campo era bello.
 The countryside was beautiful.
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams

13. NOTE: IMPERFECT ONLY HAS 3 IRREGULAR
VERBS
Vallejo-Alegre/Adams