Spanish Verb Conjugation: Indicative Mood: Imperfect Tense

You should be certain that you completely understand verb conjugation before going through this section. If you've finished regular present tense verb conjugation, it's OK to continue through these pages. You'll get it !!!

The imperfect tense is another form which has several choices in English.

Notice that each of the following sentences provides the same information:

As a child, I was playing all the time.

As a child, I would play all the time.

As a child, I used to play all the time.

All of these stem from the English infinitive "to play."

Notice the key elements that indicate "over a period of time."

*was/were	________	-ing
would
used to

Any verb can be placed in the blank, being then in the "imperfect tense."

These choices in English reflect an action that is repeated over any length of time.

The imperfect tense shows neither a beginning nor an end to a past action.

Instead, it reflects events as "on-going" in the past: so it is sometimes called the "narrative past."

By using the Spanish imperfect tense endings, ALL of the English meanings are implied.

AR verb endings

aba	ábamos
abas	abais
aba	aban

ER & IR verb endings

ía	íamos
ías	íais
ía	ían

Notice that in both sets of endings the "yo" form & the "él, ella & Usted" forms are the same.

Also realize that these endings, when attached to the verb stem, carry the full weight of :

*was/were	________	-ing
would
used to

* This form can be precisely stated: See "imperfect progressive."

There are only 3 verbs in the Spanish language which have irregular imperfect conjugations.

These verbs are ir (to go), ser (to be), & ver (to see).