Imperfect — Ongoing Past

Recap: the preterite vs the imperfect

Spanish has two past tenses. The imperfect is the second one.

Tense	Think of it as	Use
Preterite	a snapshot — one moment, done	completed events
Imperfect	a video — ongoing, background, habitual	states, habits, descriptions in the past

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What the imperfect expresses

Use the imperfect for:

• Habitual or repeated actions in the past (“used to”, “would always”)
• Ongoing states in the past (how things were, what was happening)
• Background context in a story (setting the scene)
• Age, time, weather in the past
• An action in progress when something else happened

Signal words for imperfect	English
siempre	always
nunca	never
a veces	sometimes
todos los días	every day
de niño/a	as a child
cuando era pequeño/a	when I was young
antes	before / used to
generalmente	generally
cada semana	every week
mientras	while

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Imperfect endings — regular verbs

Subject	-ar	-er / -ir
yo	-aba	-ía
tú	-abas	-ías
él/ella/usted	-aba	-ía
nosotros	-ábamos	-íamos
vosotros	-abais	-íais
ellos/ustedes	-aban	-ían

Note: yo and él/ella share the same form in the imperfect. Context (or an explicit pronoun) distinguishes them.

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-ar imperfect: hablar (to speak)

Subject	Form	English
yo	hablaba	I used to speak / I was speaking
tú	hablabas	you used to speak
él/ella	hablaba	he/she used to speak
nosotros	hablábamos	we used to speak
vosotros	hablabais	you all used to speak
ellos	hablaban	they used to speak

-ar imperfect in sentences

Spanish	English
Yo hablaba con ella todos los días.	I used to talk to her every day.
Ella caminaba al trabajo antes.	She used to walk to work.
Ellos trabajaban juntos.	They used to work together.
Yo escuchaba esa canción siempre.	I always listened to that song.
Nosotros esperábamos el bus cada mañana.	We waited for the bus every morning.
Él llamaba a su madre los domingos.	He used to call his mother on Sundays.
Tú estudiabas mucho de niño.	You used to study a lot as a child.
Ella tomaba café cada mañana.	She used to drink coffee every morning.
Vosotros llegábais tarde siempre.	You all always arrived late.
Yo compraba pan en esa tienda.	I used to buy bread at that store.

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-er / -ir imperfect: comer / vivir

Subject	comer	vivir	English
yo	comía	vivía	I used to eat / live
tú	comías	vivías	you used to eat / live
él/ella	comía	vivía	he/she used to eat / live
nosotros	comíamos	vivíamos	we used to eat / live
vosotros	comíais	vivíais	you all used to
ellos	comían	vivían	they used to

-er/-ir imperfect in sentences

Spanish	English
Yo comía en ese restaurante cada semana.	I used to eat at that restaurant every week.
Ella bebía té por las tardes.	She used to drink tea in the afternoons.
Ellos vivían en el campo antes.	They used to live in the countryside.
Tú leías mucho de joven.	You used to read a lot when you were young.
Nosotros corríamos juntos los sábados.	We used to run together on Saturdays.
Él aprendía rápido cuando era niño.	He used to learn fast when he was a child.
Yo escribía un diario.	I used to keep a diary.
Ella salía tarde del trabajo.	She used to leave work late.
Vosotros recibíais cartas todos los meses.	You all used to receive letters every month.
Yo entendía bien cuando era más joven.	I used to understand well when I was younger.

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Only 3 irregular imperfect verbs

The imperfect is highly regular — only 3 verbs are irregular.

ser (to be)

yo	tú	él/ella	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
era	eras	era	éramos	erais	eran

ir (to go)

yo	tú	él/ella	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
iba	ibas	iba	íbamos	ibais	iban

ver (to see)

yo	tú	él/ella	nosotros	vosotros	ellos
veía	veías	veía	veíamos	veíais	veían

Irregular imperfect in sentences

Spanish	English
Era muy joven entonces.	I was very young then.
Éramos amigos de niños.	We were friends as children.
Iban al mercado cada semana.	They used to go to the market every week.
Iba a la escuela en bus.	I used to go to school by bus.
Veía muchas películas antes.	I used to watch a lot of movies.
Veíamos ese programa juntos.	We used to watch that show together.
Cuando era niño, iba al parque.	When I was a child, I used to go to the park.
Era tarde y llovía mucho.	It was late and it was raining a lot.
Tenía diez años.	I was ten years old.
Había mucha gente en la plaza.	There were a lot of people in the square.

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Common mistakes

• ❌ Using the imperfect for a single completed action → ✅ use the preterite: “Ayer comí pizza” not “Ayer comía pizza”
• ❌ Confusing era (imperfect of ser) with fue (preterite of ser/ir) → ✅ era = was (ongoing); fue = was (completed moment) or went
• ❌ Forgetting that yo and él/ella share the same form → ✅ use the pronoun to disambiguate when needed

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Summary

• The imperfect describes ongoing, habitual, or background past — “used to”, “was doing”, “would always”
• Signal words: siempre, todos los días, de niño, antes, mientras
• -ar endings: -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban
• -er/-ir endings: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían
• Only 3 irregular verbs: ser, ir, ver

See also: Preterite — the completed past tense.
See also: Preterite vs Imperfect — the decision guide.