(Antonio was walking towards the park before the accident.) 4. I was reading a book.)Īntonio caminaba hacia el parque antes del accidente. You can use the imperfect to make it clear that you are talking about an action in progress:Įstaba leyendo un libro. (I was reading a book.)Īntonio caminaba hacia el parque. (Antonio was walking towards the park.)Īyer a las 5 de la tarde estaba leyendo un libro. (Yesterday at 5 p.m. However, you don’t need an interruption to describe past ongoing actions. Me estaba bañando cuando llamaste. (I was taking a bath when you called.) In Spanish, we use the imperfect tense for the ongoing action and the preterite for the interrupting one. In English, when you have an ongoing action interrupted by another, you use the past continuous for the ongoing action and the past simple for the sudden one: Juan sacaba a su perro a pasear tres veces al día. (Juan used to take/would take his dog for a walk three times a day.) 3. Juan solía sacar a su perro a pasear tres veces al día. (Juan used to take his dog for a walk three times a day.) María comía galletas cada tarde. (María used to eat/would eat cookies every afternoon.) María solía comer galletas cada tarde. (María used to eat cookies every afternoon.) However, you don’t have to use soler to say “used to.” Instead, you can conjugate the infinitive verb into the imperfect. You’ll likely come across the verb soler (tend to, used to), which is always followed by an infinitive. If an action took place repeatedly in the past, use the Spanish imperfect tense. Wendy era alta y tenía los ojos azules. (Wendy was tall and had blue eyes.) → physical description 2. The storm was almost upon us.) → set the stage for a horror story La tormenta estaba casi encima de nosotros. (It was night and very windy. Pensaba en su futuro. (He thought about his future.) → mental actionĮra de noche y hacía mucho viento. La abuela te quería mucho. (Grandma loved you very much.) → feelingĮstaba muy enfermo. (He was very sick.) → state The imperfect is the tense we use when making descriptions of the past.ĭescriptions include physical traits, feelings, mental actions, conditions and states.
#Spanish preterite endings how to
Now that we know how to form the imperfect tense, we need to know the situations that require us to use it.
Ir does the same but only drops the -a–.Ser uses the same endings as regular verbs but without the -ab.These are the only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense: Subjectīut even though these verbs are irregular, they do follow a certain pattern! Now that you know the conjugations, let’s look at some examples with -ar, -er and -ir verbs: Here’s how you conjugate these three verbs in the imperfect tense: Subject Something that makes the imperfect easier than other tenses is that the conjugations for -er and -ir verbs are the same. Remember that each Spanish verb falls into one of three conjugations depending on their ending: -ar verbs, – er verbs and – ir verbs. (I ate healthy food when I was in college.)Ĭuando él era pequeño, visitaba a su abuela todos los sábados. (When he was little, he visited his grandmother every Saturday.) Conjugating the Spanish Imperfect Tense Regular Verbs Yo comía comida sana cuando estaba en la universidad. Juan cantaba una canción mientras Ana regaba las plantas. (Juan was singing a song while Ana was watering the plants.) It’s formed by adding -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais and -aban to -ar verbs, and -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais and -ían to -er and -ir verbs. It’s often confused with the preterite (simple past tense), as these are the two main past tenses in Spanish-but more on this later! It describes habitual past actions, actions that were ongoing or actions without a specific start and end time. The imperfect is one of the five past tenses in Spanish. (Download) What Is the Spanish Imperfect Tense?
#Spanish preterite endings pdf
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. Extra Practice with the Spanish Imperfect Tense.Difference Between Spanish Imperfect and Preterite.Expressions Used with the Spanish Imperfect Tense.When To Use the Spanish Imperfect Tense.Conjugating the Spanish Imperfect Tense.In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the imperfect tense in Spanish: how to conjugate it, when to use it, irregular imperfect verbs and common expressions that are used with it.
It’s used to talk about past habitual actions, describing the past, giving times and dates and more. The Spanish imperfect tense is one of the most common past tenses. ApImperfect Tense in Spanish: The A-Z Guide to Conjugations, Usages, Irregular Verbs and Beyond
0 kommentar(er)
