Spanish Imperfect Tense: Endings and Only Three Irregulars

The imperfect is the Spanish past for what used to happen, what was going on, and what things were like. Two sets of endings, three irregular verbs:

• De niño, yo jugaba al fútbol. - As a child I used to play football.
• Llovía y hacía frío. - It was raining and it was cold.

The imperfect on one screen

The highlighted part is the ending; the boxed words are the irregulars.

The imperfect endings

-ar verbs take -aba. -er and -ir verbs share one set, -ía. Take the -ar, -er or -ir off the infinitive and add the ending:

The yo and él forms are the same word, so Spanish puts the subject in when the context does not settle it:

• Yo trabajaba y él estudiaba. - I was working and he was studying.

The nosotros -ar form carries a written accent, and so does every -ía ending:

• Hablábamos español en casa. - We spoke Spanish at home.
• Comíamos a las dos. - We used to eat at two.

Stem-changing verbs do not change in the imperfect. The stem stays as it is in the infinitive:

• Antes no dormíamos bien. - We didn't use to sleep well.
• ¿Qué pensabas? - What were you thinking?

Only three irregulars: ser, ir, ver

These three are the whole irregular set:

Ver is only half irregular: it takes the normal -ía ending but keeps the e of its infinitive, so veía, never "vía".

• Cuando yo era niño, vivía en Londres. - When I was a child, I lived in London.
• Todos los veranos íbamos a la playa. - Every summer we used to go to the beach.
• Veíamos a mi abuelo los domingos. - We used to see my grandfather on Sundays.

Every other verb is regular here, including the ones that are irregular almost everywhere else:

When to use the imperfect

The imperfect does three jobs, and each has a tell in English:

The weather is part of the scene, so it is imperfect too:

1234

1. 1Hacía sol.
2. 2Llovía.
3. 3Nevaba.
4. 4Hacía viento.

Describing the weather in the past: it was sunny, it was raining, it was snowing, it was windy.

In a story the imperfect is the background and the preterite is what happened in it:

• Yo leía cuando sonó el teléfono. - I was reading when the phone rang.

The preterite vs imperfect page shows how the two share out a story.

Words that point to the imperfect

These time words usually come with the imperfect, because they describe habits or the background:

Hablaba or estaba hablando

Both mean "I was speaking". The plain imperfect is the default, and it also covers habits. Estar in the imperfect plus the gerund stresses an action under way at one moment:

• Yo hablaba con mi madre. - I was talking to my mother. (or: I used to talk to her)
• Yo estaba hablando por teléfono cuando llegaste. - I was on the phone when you arrived.

The present progressive page has the gerund forms.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Say the six forms of hablar and of vivir aloud.
2. Learn era, iba and veía as one set.
3. Then preterite vs imperfect, where the two pasts share out a story.