At some point in your life, you have undoubtedly heard people describe what things were like in the “good old days” when they were younger. Spanish has a specific past tense dedicated to this sort of descriptive narrative:the imperfect. Now, keep in mind that there is nothing imperfect about it. Imperfecto is a grammatical term which refers to the ongoing nature of the past action described rather than its completeness or perfectness. We'll talk more about the differences between the two in a bit. For now, let's focus on what things were like in times gone by. The first step is to learn the conjugation of the imperfecto. It's very simple.

Not surprisingly, the -er and -ir verbs share the same conjugation endings. Additionally, notice that these verbs all have an accent mark on the stressed í of the ending. The -ar verbs only have an accent on the nosotros conjugation. You probably also noticed that, for each verb category, the first-and third-person singular conjugations are identical, and you might wonder if that will be confusing. Keep in mind that, in most cases, context makes it clear who the subject of the verb is, but remember that you can always use the subject pronoun if there is any possibility of miscommunication.

Irregular Verbs in the Imperfect

Like any good verb tense, the imperfect has a few verbs that are irregular in their conjugation. These aren't very tricky though, since they follow the regular pattern after you make the irregular change. You'll probably learn them as easily as you learned the regular conjugations.

Irregular Verbs in the Imperfect

TRACK 40

So, how is the imperfect used? Well, we've seen one context already: Spanish uses this tense to describe how things used to be in the past. For example, listen to Track 40, which has some examples of how you might talk about what your life was like when you were ten years old. Repeat each sentence after you hear it, paying close attention to the placement of the accent.

Cuando yo tenía diez años, era muy tímida.

(When I was ten years old, I was very shy.)

Mi familia y yo vivíamos en Acapulco.

(My family and I lived in Acapulco.)

Papá trabajaba en un hotel.

(Dad worked in a hotel.)

A veces mis hermanos y yo nadábamos en la piscina del hotel. (Sometimes, my siblings and I would swim in the hotel pool.)

Mucha gente famosa se quedaba en el hotel.

(Lots of famous people stayed in the hotel.)

Have a look at the following list for a summary of the uses of the imperfect: