WHAT IS THE “IMPERFECT PAST”?
Have you ever heard of the pasado imperfecto (imperfect past)? It’s a tense used to express continuance and habitual actions in the past.
It’s fascinating because, in English, we don’t have a special conjugation for it, which makes it even more unique. So, if you want to make your Spanish sound more exciting and impressive, using the pasado imperfecto is definitely a great way to do it!
So, we use the pasado imperfecto in the following cases:
1. To talk about a past habit. In English, to express this, sometimes we might say used to + verb:
Yo viajaba a China todos los años.
I used to travel to China every year.
2. We can also use this tense to express an action that was going on in the past (although for this it’s more common to use the pasado progresivo (progressive past):
Yo comía cuando vino mi hermano.
I was eating when my brother came.
3. Many mental processes and feelings involve duration or continuity, so verbs related to these concepts are often expressed in the pasado imperfecto. Common verbs of this nature are:
| Español | English |
|---|---|
| creer | to believe |
| pensar | to think |
| poder | to be able |
| preferir | to prefer |
| querer | to want |
| saber | to know |
| sentir | to feel |
CONJUGATION
REGULAR AR VERBS
To use the pasado imperfecto with ar verbs, simply remove the ar ending from the infinitive and add the appropriate new endings. Check out the following chart with the verb hablar (to speak) as an example. For pronunciation, listen to Vicente, a voice from Spain.
| Person | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| yo | habl + aba |
| tú | habl + abas |
| usted | habl + aba |
| él ella | habl + aba |
| nosotros nosotras | habl + ábamos |
| ustedes | habl + aban |
| ellos ellas | habl + aban |
| vos | habl + abas |
| vosotros vosotras | habl + abais |
REGULAR ER AND IR VERBS
Now, let’s explore the pasado imperfecto of regular er and ir verbs! You just need to drop the infinitive ending and add the right personal endings to the stem. Check out the following chart with the verb comer (to eat) as an example. For pronunciation, listen to Simón, a voice from Colombia.
| Person | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| yo | com + ía |
| tú | com + ías |
| usted | com + ía |
| él ella | com + ía |
| nosotros nosotras | com + íamos |
| ustedes | com + ían |
| ellos ellas | com + ían |
| vos | com + ías |
| vosotros vosotras | com + íais |
Now, let’s play this game!
More about this tense will come soon!!!
