The Imperfect Tense
- 2. Preterite You have already learned to talk about the past using the preterite tense for actions that began and ended at a definite time.
- 3. Preterite Ana cantó en la fiesta anoche. Ana sang at the party last night. (Completed past action.)
- 4. Imperfect The imperfect tense is another way to talk about the past. We use it to *describe actions without any indication of their beginning or end.
- 5. Imperfect Ana cantaba. Ana was singing. (No indication of beginning or end.)
- 6. Imperfect We use the imperfect to talk about actions that happened repeatedly in the past. In English we often say “used to” or “would” to express this idea.
- 7. Imperfect Generalmente caminaban mucho. Generally they would walk a lot.
- 8. Imperfect Jugaban con otros niños de la familia. They used to play with other children in the family.
- 9. Imperfect Here are all the forms of -ar verbs in the imperfect. Notice the accent mark on the nosotros form.
- 10. AR endings Yo aba Tú abas Él Ella aba Ud. Nos. ábamos Ellos Ellas aban Uds.
- 11. Since the yo and the Ud./él/ella forms are the same, we often use the subject pronouns to avoid confusion. Imperfect
- 12. Imperfect Let’s do a few more verbs.
- 13. PATINAR (to skate) Yo patinaba Tú patinabas Él Ella patinaba Ud. Nos. patinábamos Ellos Ellas patinaban Uds.
- 14. USAR (to use) Yo usaba Tú usabas Él Ella usaba Ud. Nos. usábamos Ellos Ellas usaban Uds.
- 15. JUGAR (to play) Yo jugaba Tú jugabas Él Ella jugaba Ud. Nos. jugábamos Ellos Ellas jugaban Uds.
- 17. Now we will learn the -er/- ir verb endings in the imperfect tense. Imperfect
- 18. ER/IR endings Yo ía Tú ías Él Ella ía Ud. Nos. íamos Ellos Ellas ían Uds.
- 19. COMER (to eat) Yo comía Tú comías Él Ella comía Ud. Nos. comíamos Ellos Ellas comían Uds.
- 22. ¿Cuándo lo usamos? To describe actions that have no clear beginning or end Ex: Emilio siempre iba al parque. Emilio always used to go to the park. Ex: Los chicos comían pizza. The boys used to eat pizza.
- 23. ¿Cuándo lo usamos? To describe actions that happened repeatedly in the past Ex: Cada día íbamos a la guardaría infantil. Every day we used to go to daycare. Ex: Los chicos se peleaban mucho. The boys used to fight a lot.
- 24. ¿Cuándo lo usamos? To describe people or places in the past Ex: Emilio era muy travieso. Emilio was very mischievous. Ex: Los chicos eran obedientes. The boys were obediant.
- 25. To describe time or weather in the past Ex: Hacía frío. It was cold. Ex: Eran las once de la noche. It was eleven a night. ¿Cuándo lo usamos?
- 26. Imperfect—trigger words a veces—sometimes usualmente—usually generalmente—generally siempre—always a menudo—often de vez en cuando—once in a while muchas veces—all the time nunca—never todos los días—everyday
- 27. Irregular Verbs
- 28. The Imperfect There are three irregular verbs in the imperfect. The verbs IR, SER, and VER.