What the imperfecto is for
With the imperfecto you say what something used to be like or what people did regularly. The beginning and end of the action do not matter.
English has no single tense for this. It spreads the job over used to, would and was doing, and often uses the plain simple past. Spanish collects all of that into one form.
English shapes, one Spanish form
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I used to play football / I would play football every day | jugaba al fútbol (todos los días) |
| I was playing football | jugaba al fútbol |
| It was cold. I was ten. | Hacía frío. Tenía diez años. |
jugar (to play), first person singular
A single finished event is not the imperfecto's job; that is the indefinido. The hard part for English speakers is that I played can be either one, so a choice you never had to make in English becomes obligatory in Spanish.
Formation - stem plus a fixed ending
Take the stem (the infinitive without -ar, -er or -ir) and add the ending. -er and -ir verbs share the same endings again. Almost every verb is regular; only ser, ir and ver are not (era, iba, veía).
Endings in the imperfecto
| Person | -ar: hablar | -er: comer | -ir: vivir |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaba | comía | vivía |
| tú | hablabas | comías | vivías |
| él/ella/usted | hablaba | comía | vivía |
| nosotros/as | hablábamos | comíamos | vivíamos |
| vosotros/as | hablabais | comíais | vivíais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablaban | comían | vivían |
hablar: to speak · comer: to eat · vivir: to live
Every -er and -ir ending carries a í. With -ar verbs only the nosotros form has an accent: hablábamos.
The yo form and the él/ella/usted form are identical: hablaba means “I spoke” and “he/she spoke”. The subject or the context shows who is meant.
The forms in a sentence
Ella siempre hablaba en voz baja.
She always spoke quietly.
De pequeños comíamos juntos cada domingo.
As children we used to eat together every Sunday.
Mis padres vivían cerca del mar.
My parents lived near the sea.
The three core uses
Habits
What you used to do again and again, often with siempre, todos los días or antes.
Siempre desayunaba a las ocho.
I always had breakfast at eight.
Los domingos visitábamos a mis abuelos.
On Sundays we used to visit my grandparents.
Descriptions and states
What someone or something was like then: looks, age, clock time, weather, physical and emotional states.
La casa era grande y tenía un jardín.
The house was big and had a garden.
Tenía diez años.
I was ten years old.
Estaba muy cansado.
I was very tired.
Background and simultaneity
The setting in which something happened, often with mientras (while).
Mientras yo cocinaba, él leía el periódico.
While I was cooking, he was reading the newspaper.
Llovía y no había nadie en la calle.
It was raining and there was nobody in the street.
