Past Imperfect Tense

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Last Updated: Monday, 03 February 2025 03:40
Published: Saturday, 01 June 2024 20:08
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Past Imperfect Tense

As explained in verb section, Past Imperfect tense is used to talk about past actions generally, without a specific duration. This includes past habitual actions, as well as actions that were not completed in the past. In Past perfect, actions were completed (He went to church), but in Past imperfect, it's like "He went to church every Sunday". Think of it as "when events were completed" they were "perfect", i.e how it was supposed to be. However, when events in past were left uncompleted, then it's not really perfect, so we call it "Imperfect".

Link => https://lingvist.com/course/learn-spanish-online/resources/spanish-imperfect-past-tense/

Below are 2 cases where it's used. This is important to learn, as is more common than you might think !!

  1. Gerund form: ex: I was eating => estaba comiendo. We use past imperfect form of was => estaba. Estar form  (NOT ser form) used with gerund. See in Gerund section
  2. Habitual/repeated action (used to) => I used to play tennis => Yo jugaba al tenis. Again we use past imperfect form of jugar => jugaba. 

This is the conjugation table for Past Imperfect: Different for -ar verb and -er/-ir verb. 1st and 3rd person singular form are same, while 2nd person singular is just an "s" added at end. So, this makes singular form of this table really easy.

-ar verbs:

 We basically add the suffix -ab to the stem word

 base word = -ar (was/used to) singular plural
 I => First person -aba

-ábamos
You (informal) => Second person

-abas

-abaís
He, she, You (formal=> Third person

-aba (same as 1st person)

-aban

 

-er/-ir verbs:

 We basically add the suffix -ía (i with an accent) to the stem word.

NOTE: This suffix "ía" etc is the same as that used in "Simple conditional form" (i.e would go, etc). The only difference is that it here it goes with the stem (i.e gust + ía = gustía), while in Simple conditional, the full full base word is used (i.e gustar + ía = gustaría).

 base word = -er/-ir (was/used to) singular plural
 I => First person -ía

-íamos
You (informal) => Second person

-ías

-íaís
He, she, You (formal=> Third person

-ía (same as 1st person)

-ían

 

ex:

  • Simple Past tense (Preterite): I built a house last year (event is completed) => yo construí una casa el año pasado. (To construct is "construir" an -ir verb, so conjugation is construí)
  • Past Imperfect: I used to build houses (habitual) => yo construía casas ( construir verb is conjugated to construía)
    • ex: I used to live in Spain => yo vivía en españa

Another way of saying "I used to":

There is one other way of saying I used to, which is not very common. We use word "solía" for "I used to", and then we use the infinitive form of verb (w/o any conjugation).

ex: I used to read a lot => solía leer mucho.

 

 

Irregular verbs in Past imperfect:

There are only 3 verbs which are irregular in past imperfect => Ser, Ver, Ir. (Estar still follows regular -aba form that is used for -ar verbs)

 base word = -ar, -er, -ir Imperfect Tense (ser => to be) => treat it as -ar verb with stem as "er". Also instead of -aba, use -a Imperfect Tense (ver => to see) => treat it as -er verb with stem as "ve" (i.e only drop r, don't drop full er) Imperfect Tense (ir => to go) => treat it as -ar verb with no stem and suffix as "iba" instead of "aba"
I (We)  era  veía iba
You (You all)  eras  veías ibas
He, She, You (They, You all)  era  veía iba
We éramos (accent on é)  veíamos ibamos
You all erais  veíaís ibaís
They, You all eran  veían iban

 

ex:

  • I was very happy in elementary school => Era muy feliz en primaria. => Here, it means "I used to be very happy", it's not a event that completed. Even though "was" is used which seems to indicate that's past perfect, but the meaning of sentence implies "used to" which makes it past imperfect.
  • I used to watch movies every saturday => yo veía peliculas todos los sábados.