Cantaba
Cantabas
Cantaba
Cantábamos
[Cantabais]
Cantaban
Comía
Comías
Comía
Comíamos
[Comíais]
Comían
Abría
Abrías
Abría
Abríamos
[Abríais]
Abrían
Verbs ending in -ER, -IR use the same suffixes.
In this tense we use the same habitual expressions of time that we use in the present simple tense, but referring to the past:
Siempre - always
A veces - sometimes
Cada día - every day
Casi cada día - almost every day
Cada jueves - every Thursday
It is also very common to use the adverb antes, with the meaning "in the past"*, when using the imperfect tense:
Antes yo tenía un perro. (In the past, I used to have a dog.)
Antes yo siempre iba a casa de mi hermana los viernes. (In the past, I always used to go to my sister’s house on Fridays.)
*Note: This is a very different usage from the typical use of antes [de]/después [de] as before/after.
We make a similar use to the present; we use this verb tense to express things that were a habit in the past. In English it means more or less used to, or would always:
Antes siempre comía pizza en D’Angelo. (In the past, I always used to eat pizza at D’Angelo.)
Tú siempre cantabas mi canción. (You always used to sing my song.)
En esos días, ella siempre trabajaba por la noche. (On those days, she would always work at night.)
Description
When we narrate something in the past and add descriptions, they must use the imperfect. We usually combine it with the pretérito perfecto; basically we use the pretérito perfecto for actions and the imperfect for descriptions. In English it means more or less I was + verb -ing:
Llegué a mi casa. Vanessa cantaba una canción y mi perro comía un hueso. Me duché y me acosté.
(I arrived home. Vanessa was singing a song and my dog was eating a bone. I took a shower and went to bed.)*
*Note: in these cases, it is equivalent to use a progressive version of the imperfect: Vanessa estaba cantando - Vanessa was singing than to use the imperfect directly: Vanessa cantaba - Vanessa was singing. We recommend using the second option.
When we want to express how we felt in the past, we normally use the imperfect. We always use the verb estar in these cases:
El jueves María no fue a trabajar porque estaba enferma. (Last Thursday María did no go to work because she was sick.)
Peter estaba muy triste. (Peter was very sad.)
Era
Eras
Era
Éramos
[Erais]
Eran
Estaba
Estabas
Estaba
Estábamos
[Estabais]
Estaban
Tenía
Tenías
Tenía
Teníamos
[Teníais]
Tenían
Iba
Ibas
Iba
Íbamos
[Ibais]
Iban
Hacía
Hacías
Hacía
Hacíamos
[Hacíais]
Hacían
The verbs estar, tener and hacer are 100% regular.
Examples using the imperfect tense:
Mi padre siempre cantaba canciones viejas. (My father always used to sing/would always sing old songs.)
Nosotros teníamos una casa muy grande en España. (We had/used to have a big house in Spain.)
El cielo estaba muy azul. Julia descansaba en la cama. Yo trabajaba y tomaba café. (The sky was very blue. Julia was resting on the bed. I was working and drinking coffee.) — Descriptive use. We are describing the scene, not narrating actions.
It is a stem-changing verb (suelo, sueles, suele, solemos, [soléis], suelen) that means, more or less, to "usually do something", to "tend to do something", to "be accustomed to do something", or in imperfect, "used to do something". In Spanish, it is usually followed by an infinitive:
Yo solía caminar en el parque los martes. (I used to walk in the park on Tuesdays.)
Mi madre solía ir al supermercado los viernes. (My mother used to go to the supermarket on Fridays.)
We can express this by conjugating the verbs directly in the imperfect tense:
Yo caminaba en el parque los martes. (I used to walk in the park on Tuesdays.)
Mi madre iba al supermercado los viernes. (My mother used to go to the supermarket on Fridays.)
The meaning is practically the same; the only difference is that when we use soler we add a very strong connotation of habit. (Solía has a sense of habituation, and the imperfect tense means something used to be, without really stating anything about habituation. They often overlap, though.)
We recommend using the imperfect tense directly, and not using the verb soler.
When I was a kid / When I was 12: We always use the imperfect with the verbs ser and tener respectively:
Cuando era niño comía siempre en la casa de mi abuela los sábados.
(When I was a kid, I would always eat at my grandmother’s house on Saturdays.)
Cuando tenía doce años jugaba con mi amigo Pedro cada día.
(When I was twelve, I used to play with my friend Pedro every day.)
Cuando era pequeña vivía en Barcelona. Me gustaba ir al mercado con mi madre cada viernes. Era muy bonito y siempre había muchas personas. Después de comprar, mi madre y yo siempre comíamos un plato de paella en el restaurante Las Flores.
Cada domingo iba al parque. Allí yo montaba en bicicleta y jugaba con mi perro Antonio. A veces los sábados iba al parque de atracciones. Allí comía algodón de azúcar y montaba en las atracciones. No me gustaba el barco pirata porque me mareaba y vomitaba.
Había - There was/there were
Montar - to ride
Parque de atracciones - amusement park
Atracciones - rides
Algodón de azúcar - cotton candy
Barco pirata - Pirate ship
Marearse - to get dizzy
Vomitar - to throw up
The imperfect tense can be translated into English in four ways:
En el pasado yo tocaba la guitarra. (In the past, I used to play the guitar.)
Después de la cena siempre íbamos a bailar. (After dinner we would always go dancing.)
En la fiesta María bailaba y Juan cantaba. (At the party, María was dancing and Juan was singing.)
Cuando era pequeño tenía un perro. (When I was little, I had a dog.)
In English there are many constructions for the past tense. In Spanish, there are only two: when we have an action that occurs at a specific time, we always use pretérito perfecto. When it is a habitual or descriptive past, we always use imperfect.
Todo el día - all day long/all day/for the whole day
Cuando vivía en España jugaba al fútbol todo el día. (When I was living in Spain, I used to play soccer all day long.)
El martes pasado jugué al fútbol todo el día. (Last Tuesday, I played soccer for the whole day.)
CARLOS: Hola Isabel, tú estudiaste en la universidad en Florida, ¿es correcto?
ISABEL: Hola Carlos. Es correcto.
C: ¿Cómo era la vida (life) en Florida?
I: Era muy diferente de la vida en Nueva York. Yo tenía un carro. Siempre tenía que ir en carro al supermercado o al gimnasio porque no teníamos transporte público.
C: ¿Vivías en el campus o vivías en un apartamento?
I: Vivía en un apartamento con mi amiga Elena. Era muy simpática.
C: ¿Cocinabas en el apartamento o comías en la cafetería de la universidad?
I: Cocinaba en mi apartamento casi siempre. La comida de la cafetería era normalmente muy mala.
C: ¿Ibas al gimnasio cada día?
I: Sí, iba a un gimnasio muy grande en South Beach.
C: En general, ¿te gustaba vivir en Florida?
I: Sí, mucho.
When we talk about a period of time and indicate when it began and when it ended, we use the pretérito perfecto tense. We usually use the prepositions entre (between) or de/a (from/to) to delimit the time period.
Entre 1999 y 2005 viví en Toronto.
De 2010 a 2013 no comí carne.
It is very common to use mientras with the imperfect tense when we make a descriptive use:
While I was doing action A, action B was also happening.
Mientras yo comía mi perro bebía agua. (While I was eating, my dog was drinking water.)
Mientras Elena bailaba Juan miraba una película. (While Elena was dancing, Juan was watching a movie.)
Certain verbs naturally have an action meaning: llegar, salir, mirar… But other verbs have a more "descriptive" meaning: tener (for possession), saber (for knowledge), creer (for beliefs)... Action verbs are usually in the pretérito perfecto tense (Juan llegó a las siete; Miré el programa el jueves pasado; Salí de casa. In English: Juan arrived at seven; I watched the show last Thursday; I left my house) and "descriptive" verbs are usually in the imperfect tense (Yo sabía que Juan vivía en Madrid; Creía que estabas en casa; Tenía un gato. In English: I knew Juan lived in Madrid; I believed you were home; I used to have a cat).
In some cases, both options are correct; we use one or the other depending on the feeling we want to convey:
Estuve enfermo todo el día. (I was sick all day.) — We are saying for how long that happened.
Estaba enfermo. (I was sick.) — We are using it in a descriptive way.
En ese momento, Pedro supo todo. (At that moment, Pedro knew/found out everything.)
Pedro sabía todo. (Pedro knew everything.) — He knew, in general.
As we know, for actions that occurred at a specific time in the past, we always use the pretérito perfecto tense:
I bought a house last year. - Compré una casa el año pasado.
I watched a movie last Thursday. - Miré una película el jueves pasado.
Yesterday, I ate dinner at my friend’s house. - Ayer cené en la casa de mi amigo.
Did you go? - ¿Fuiste?
For everything else (including certain verbs that in English are in past simple but do not indicate action), we generally use the imperfect:
I knew that.
The party was boring.
I was sick.
Peter was studying.
I used to go there all the time.
My mom always used to/would always cook pasta on Fridays.
In general, we use more the imperfect versions (era/estaba) for was/were, because we usually make a descriptive use of these verbs:
Yo antes era abogado. (In the past, I was/used to be a lawyer.)
No fui a trabajar porque estaba muy enfermo. (I didn’t go to work because I was very sick.)
¿Cómo era tu vida cuando eras pequeño? (Lit. How was your life when you were little?)
Fui a casa de Juan, pero Juan no estaba allí. (I went to Juan’s house, but Juan wasn’t there.)
But we can use the pretérito perfecto versions when we want to make a specific temporal use:
De 1999 a 2003 yo fui abogado.
No fui a trabajar porque estuve enfermo toda la mañana.
Juan estuvo en la oficina de 9 de la mañana a 5 de la tarde.
