![]() Here, the imperfect is used to give us background to what Mercedes was doing when she was interrupted by the phone ringing. Just when I was leaving the house, the phone rang. Let’s take a look at another: Justo cuando salía de casa sonó el teléfono. In this sentence, the imperfect is used to give background to the story – they were in garden – when it started to rain. We were in the garden when it started to rain. Think of it as the key to setting the scene when you start telling a story.įor example: Estábamos en el jardín cuando comenzó a llover. The other way to think about the Spanish imperfect is when you want to describe the circumstances – or the background – in which an event took place. Here, we don’t know the exact date when the speaker (let’s call them Mercedes) stopped living in Madrid with their parents – so we use the imperfect tense. When I was small, I lived in Madrid with my parents. Let’s take a look at another example: Cuando era pequeño vivía en Madrid con mis padres. We don’t know when the family stopped vacationing at the beach.Īll we know is that they don’t anymore (sad face), so we use the imperfect tense. My family and I vacationed at the beach every year. To help decide if you should be using the Spanish imperfect, ask yourself, does the action have a definite completion date? If not, then it’s likely you’ll need to use the imperfect tense.įor example: Mi familia y yo íbamos de vacaciones a la playa todos los años. The Spanish imperfect ( pretérito imperfecto del indicativo) is the tense we use to talk about past events that haven’t ended or recurrent past events. When used correctly, this tense is the perfect way to talk about the past! PAST TENSE SPANISH HOW TOSo let’s jump in and take a look at everything you need to know about the Spanish imperfect – what it is, how to form it and when to use it.ĭon’t be tricked by the word imperfect. We use the Spanish imperfect tense to describe past events or recurring actions that don’t have a specific end date.Įven though English doesn’t have a direct equivalent tense, once you understand the basic rules around when to use the imperfect tense in Spanish, it’ll become second nature. You might even find you begin to overuse it as it’s very easy to conjugate verbs in the imperfect! So if you want to learn how to use the Spanish imperfect properly, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about this past tense.Īlthough there are quite a few past tenses in Spanish, the imperfect is one of the most commonly used – so it’s a good one to master.Īnd to be honest, it’s not as hard as you think. It’s easy to conjugate, but it can be tricky for English speakers to know exactly when to use it. Spanish has quite a few verbs with irregular past participles.The imperfect tense in Spanish is used to describe past actions or events that don’t have a specific end date. There are seven perfect tenses in Spanish, and all of them use the past participle. For the conditional, use the same stems but with different endings! Irregulars in the Perfect Tenses Click here for a list of the irregular simple future forms. When learning all the different tenses in Spanish, learners are often pleased to find out that the future and conditional have the same irregular stems. Irregulars in the Future and Conditional Tenses The irregular verbs ser, ir, dar, and ver.Click on this link to learn verbs with tricky preterite conjugations, including: The imperfect has only three verbs with irregular conjugations: ir, ser, and ver while the preterite has many more. Spanish has two simple past tenses: imperfect and preterite. Irregular present tense verbs fall into various categories: The easiest way to memorize irregular verbs in Spanish is to group them into categories. While it can be difficult to remember hundreds of irregular verb forms, we have multiple guides to help you with the most common ones. All Spanish tenses have regular and irregular verbs. ![]()
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