Imperfect Indicative Tense - Conjugation.

The Spanish Imperfect tense is used to refer or talk about past actions that took place over an indeterminate period of time, let’s say, actions not seen as finished. On the contrary, remember that there is another Spanish simple past tense, called Preterite, used to express actions that took place in the past, but with a concrete beginning and end (See Preterit and Imperfect).

To conjugate this tense, let’s first remember that there are 3 verbs categories: Verbs ending in –ar, in –er and in –ir. (1st, 2nd and 3rd categories, respectively). Remember? We just have to remove the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir), and add the corresponding imperfect ending.

Regular verbs belonging to the First category (-ar), take the following endings:

(yo) –aba
(tu) –abas
(el / ella / usted) –aba
(nosotros) –ábamos
(vosotros) –abais
(ellos / ustedes) -aban

And regular verbs belonging to the Second and Third categories:

(yo) –ía
(tu) –ías
(el / ella / usted) –ía
(nosotros) –íamos
(vosotros) –íais
(ellos / ustedes) -ían

So here we have a table with the Imperfect tense conjugation: ('Click and listen')

Imperfect Indicative Conjugation – Regular Verbs

	Amar (To love) (1st conjugation)	Beber (To drink) (2nd conjugation)	Vivir (To live) (3rd conjugation)
Yo	amaba	bebía	vivía
Tu	amabas	bebías	vivías
El / Ellla /Usted	maba	bebía	vivía
Nosotros	amábamos	bebíamos	vivíamos
Vosotros	amabais	bebíais	vivíais
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes	amaban	bebían	vivían
	Click here to listen: Amar - Imperfect	Click here to listen: Beber - Imperfect	Click here to listen: vivir - Imperfect

And what about irregular verbs? Well, we have good news, as there are only three irregular verbs for the imperfect of indicative:

Imperfect Indicative Conjugation – Irregular Verbs

	Ser (To be)	Ver (To see)	Ir (To go)
Yo	era	veía	iba
Tu	eras	veías	ibas
El / Ella /Usted	era	veía	iba
Nosotros	éramos	veíamos	íbamos
Vosotros	erais	veíais	ibais
Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes	eran	veían	iban
	Click here to listen: Ser - Imperfect	Click here to listen: Ver - Imperfect	Click here to listen: Ir - Imperfect

Now let’s see some examples:

Regular Verbs:
Mi esposa cantaba cuando era joven.(My wife used to sing when she was young)
(Infinitive: Cantar)

Manuel bebía leche todos los dias.(Manuel used to drink milk everyday)
(Infinitive: Beber)

Luis nunca decía la verdad. (Luis never used to say the truth)
(Infinitive: Decir)

Irregular Verbs:
Nosotros ibamos al colegio. (We used to go to school)
(Infinitive: Ir)

Ella era la mejor atleta. (She used to be the best athlete)
(Infinitive: Ser)

Veían las montañas desde esta ventana. (They used to see the mountains from this window
(Infinitive: Ver)

As always, for any question or comment, feel free to e-mail me.

¡Hasta pronto!

'Click and listen' glossary: (alphabetical order):

amar: To love
atleta: athlete
beber: To drink
colegio: school
cuando: when
decir: To say, to tell
desde: from
esposa: wife
esta: this (feminine)
ir: To go

joven: young
leche: milk
mejor: best
mi: My
montañas: mountains
nunca: never
ser: To be
todos los días: everyday
ventana: window
vivir: To live

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