Spanish Imperfect Tense
Imperfect Spanish Tense Past Tense
The Spanish language has 2 main past tenses! The preterite Spanish tense and the imperfect tense. These are 2 forms of Spanish past tense. The most important one to learn first is past tense preterite Spanish. The imperfect Spanish tense is what we will focus on in this blog post. This Spanish past tense is complicated but Spanish in Atlanta has come up with unique ways to make the imperfect Spanish tense much easier!
The imperfect tense comes with many rules that can be confusing so we will simplify it and talk about the other more complicated rules in Part II- comment below, if you want us to make a part II 🙂
- Repetitive past action
- Age
- Time
- descriptions of how something/someone was in the past.
Repetitive past action is self explanatory- it’s when you are talking about a past action that has happened many times and the sentence doesn’t say WHEN IT STOPPED HAPPENING!!Â
Example:Â Yo visitaba a mi familia los fines de semana.
This sentence shows how the subject did the action multiple times thanks to ” los fines de semana” this shows repetition but the sentence doesn’t say when it stopped. This is how the imperfect tense works!
Example: Yo visité a mi familia el fin de semana pasado!
This sentence uses the Spanish preterite tense and NOT the imperfect because the action occurred only once and we know when it ended! This is one of the most important differences between the Imperfect tense and the preterite tense in Spanish! Use Spanish in Atlanta’s free practice worksheet to master the Imperfect tense conjugations!
2. ONLY use the imperfect tense for when you are talking about anyone’s age in the past. Any talk about AGE in the past will be in the imperfect tense. I love this rule because there are no exceptions! Start memorizing easy simple rules first and then tackle the harder ones later!
Example:  Mi hermana tenÃa 10 años cuando nosotros fuimos a Colombia!
3. TIME– this rule refers to when you are telling people at what time something happened. This is also a firm rule! It will always be in imperfect tense!
Example: Eran las 8pm, cuando MarÃa me llamó!
4. Description of something in the past- most of the time will be in the imperfect Spanish tense! The examples below will make it obvious.
Example: La casa era bonita y muy grande. TenÃa un jardÃn bello y la piscina era grande.
The sentence is talking about the casa, how it looked, how it was and about the jardin y piscina! This is descriptive and will use imperfect!
Imperfect Spanish Tense Conjugation Endings
AR SPANISH VERBSÂ Â Â ER-IR VERBS
aba                   Ãa  Â
abas                  Ãas
aba                   Ãa
ábamos               Ãan
aban                  Ãan
Remove the last 2 letters of any AR VERB and add the AR past tense endings above. Look at the example below.
EXAMPLE:Â Â Â Â HABLARÂ Â Â Â Â HABLÂ Â Â =Â HABLABA
The example above applies to all ERÂ IR and ARÂ REGULAR VERBS. This tense has only 3 irregular verbs. If you want a part II of imperfect past tense, comment below!
Imperfect Tense Pronunciation Audio File:
How to Practice Spanish Imperfect Tense
- Practice with yourself! Talk about your past!
- Study online Spanish news articles.
- Do written work & practice imperfect conjugations
- Use our FREE Spanish Imperfect tense worksheet
- Listen to easy boring Spanish podcasts
- Do past tense targeted drills
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4 Comments
Part 2 for sure! I really have enjoyed how you teach and explain things. Look forward to part 2 of Spanish imperfect tense and also what the irregular Spanish verbs in imperfect tense are.
Imperfect Spanish tense is so confusing for me so anything out there that can clarify it for me is great! Interested in Part 2 pls
Part dos porfavor. I have almost given up on Spanish but finding easy material like yours keeps me going.
I have noticed that present tense and future tense Spanish were easier for me than past tense Spanish; not to mention the imperfect Spanish tense. Part 2 would be great.