While describing where you used to vacation or what you wanted to be when you grew up, you’ll be using the imperfect tense. The imperfecto (imperfect) in Spanish is one of two main past tenses, and one of the easiest tenses to form. You’ll use it to give background information or talk about actions that happened repeatedly. As a descriptive past tense, it’s used to talk about actions that have no clear beginning or ending moment in time.
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What is the Spanish imperfect tense?
In grammar, “imperfect” means that an action has not yet been completed. And in Spanish, there are two imperfect past tenses: one for the indicative mood and one for the subjunctive mood.
| Spanish Tense | When To Use | Example |
| pretérito imperfecto de indicativo (imperfect tense, indicative mood) | repeated or habitual actions ongoing actions descriptive verbs in the past | Mi familia viajaba todos los veranos. = My family used to travel every summer. |
| pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo (imperfect tense, subjunctive mood) | imaginary or contrary-to-fact scenarios personal judgements or attitudes about a past timeframe | No me gustaba que mi familia no viajara más a menudo. = I didn’t like that my family didn’t travel more often. |
Recognizing and forming the pretérito imperfecto de indicativo
Forming the pretérito imperfecto de indicativo (imperfect tense in the indicative mood) is a similar process to patterns for other Spanish verb tenses. You’ll remove the -AR, -ER, or -IR ending from the infinitive and add the appropriate new ending. There are two regular conjugation patterns, one for -AR verbs and the other for both -ER and -IR verbs.
| Spanish Subject Pronoun | -AR Verb Endings | -ER and -IR Verb Endings |
| yo I | -aba | -ía |
| tú you (informal) | -abas | -ías |
| él/ella he/she usted you (formal) | -aba | -ía |
| nosotros we | -ábamos | -íamos |
| vosotros you all (informal, Spain) | -abais | -íais |
| ellos/ellas they ustedes you all | -aban | -ían |
There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect (ser, ir, and ver), and they are all still very recognizable. Even verbs like hacer, which typically have irregular conjugations, will play by the rules in the imperfect.
| Spanish Subject Pronoun | ser (to be) | ir (to go) | ver (to see) |
| yo I | era | iba | veía |
| tú you (informal) | eras | ibas | veías |
| él/ella he/she usted you (formal) | era | iba | veía |
| nosotros we | éramos | íbamos | veíamos |
| vosotros you all (informal, Spain) | erais | ibais | veíais |
| ellos/ellas they ustedes you all | eran | iban | veían |
When to use the imperfect tense
You’ll use the Spanish imperfect tense, also known as the preterito imperfecto in Spanish, when you’re talking about activities you did every year, what you commonly did when you were younger, or when you’re providing descriptive information in the Spanish past tense. The imperfect will often “set the scene” to bring the listener or reader into the way the moment felt or the way things were, alongside the preterite that recounts the particular events that happened.
You can’t necessarily count on the English translation to differentiate between the imperfect tense and the preterite, because it can be translated a few ways. Yo bailaba could be translated in English as:
- I danced
- I would dance
- I used to dance
Some of the best advice for how to learn Spanish is to immerse yourself in the language to get the overall “feel” of the imperfect tense and when to use it. To give you a head start, there are a few instances when you can confidently use the imperfect.
Repeated or habitual actions in the past
Things you used to do as a child, or the ways you spent your holidays every year are typical uses of the imperfect. It works when you want to say that someone did an activity regularly or periodically, like “every Saturday,” or if you’d say they “used to” or “would” do the activity in the past.
- Yo jugaba al tenis cuando era niña. = I used to play tennis when I was a little girl.
- Cuando era niña, yo tomaba el autobús a la escuela. = When I was a young girl, I would take the bus to school.
The imperfect can express the way that things were in a previous era without referring to any one specific instance.
- Plantaban las semillas en la primavera y empezaban a cosechar en otoño. = They would plant the seeds in the spring, and they started to harvest in the fall.
- No vendían todo lo que cultivaban porque ellos comían también. = They didn’t sell everything that they grew, because they would also eat.
Descriptions and background information
Information that sets the scene in the past but does not refer to a specific action would fall into the category of the imperfect. Use the imperfect for likes and dislikes, what there was, things people knew, things people had or wanted, and feelings.
- Me gustaba mi viejo gerente. Era amable. = I liked my old manager. He was nice.
- Sus zapatos estaban limpios. = Her shoes were clean.
- ¿Sabías que yo hablo árabe? = Did you know that I speak Arabic?
- Teníamos bicicletas cuando vivíamos en París. = We had bicycles when we lived in Paris.
- Yo quería tener un trabajo en un hospital . = I wanted to have a job in a hospital.
An unknown or unspecified timeframe
Sometimes the exact period of time isn’t the important part of what you’re communicating. If you don’t specify the period of time, the imperfect situates the action at an unspecified time in the past.
- Sí, trabajábamos en la misma oficina. = Yes, we used to work in the same office.
- ¿Qué enseñaba? = What did you teach?
- Cuando estaba en los Estados Unidos, enseñaba música. Cuando estaba en Australia, enseñaba matemáticas. = When I was in the United States, I used to teach music. When I was in Australia, I taught math.
Time and date
Though it seems to break the “unspecified time” rule, the imperfect is used to tell the time and date when describing the past.
- Eran las seis y media. = It was 6:30.
- Era el 5 de febrero. = It was February 5th.
Age
Use the imperfect to discuss age in the past.
- Cuando yo tenía veinticinco años, era bombero en Nueva York . = When I was 25, I was a firefighter in New York.
Weather
You will frequently see the imperfect in descriptions of weather because it’s happening in the background of the action in your story. Weather is generally ongoing without a clear beginning or end.
- Llovía mientras esperábamos el autobús . = It was raining while we were waiting for the bus.
- Esta mañana hacía mucho viento en la playa . = This morning it was very windy on the beach.
- Cuando estábamos en la playa, hacía sol. = When we were on the beach, it was sunny.
Interrupted actions
In some sentences, there are two actions: One is already happening and ongoing when the other interrupts. In this situation, the interrupted or ongoing action is conjugated in the imperfect, and the action that interrupts it as a single event is used in the preterite.
- Perdí mi bolso mientras caminaba para el supermercado. = I lost my bag while I was walking toward the supermarket.
- Almorzó mientras esperaba el tren. = I ate lunch while I was waiting for the train.
You can also use the past progressive for actions that were in progress in the past
Just as the present progressive tense can emphasize an ongoing or continuous action in the present using estar and the gerundio (gerund), you can emphasize that an action was continuously happening or ongoing during a past period of time.
- Estaba estudiando. = I was studying.
Conjugate estar in the imperfect and form the gerund by replacing:
- -AR with -ando
- -ER and -IR with -iendo.
There might be little difference between this and the simple imperfect estudiaba, but it’s very common and brings a bit more emphasis to the fact that the action was occurring at that time.
- Estábamos peleándonos por los auriculares. = We were fighting over the headphones.
- Salí afuera y estaba lloviendo. = I went outside and it was raining.
- Ustedes habrían ido a la escuela, pero estaba nevando. = You would have gone to school, but it was snowing.
Using ir a… to discuss the near future from a past perspective
Just as the structure ir + a + infinitivo can express a near future action in the present, such as voy a estudiar (I’m going to study), you can use this structure with the imperfect of ir to say what someone was going to do.
- Íbamos a cenar fuera, pero empezó a llover. = We were going to have dinner outside, but it started to rain.
Preterite vs. imperfect: Which past tense should you use?
English does not differentiate between these two past tenses as obviously as Spanish does, so it’s helpful to compare the two. The biggest factor in choosing between preterite tense vs. imperfect Spanish past tenses has to do with whether the timing of the action is complete and specific (preterite) or ongoing and unspecified (imperfect).
Many times the verb would be translated the same way in English, but if there are other clues or time markers in the sentence, it changes perspective from imperfect to preterite.
- Yo vivía en Chile cuando era niña. = I lived in Chile when I was a young girl. (imperfect; the time is less clearly defined)
- Yo viví en Chile durante dos años. = I lived in Chile for two years. (preterite; the timeframe has a clear beginning and end)
You will often have both the preterite and the imperfect together in a sentence in the past timeframe.
- El póster era muy caro, así que en lugar de eso compré postales. = The poster was very expensive (imperfect; ongoing description), so instead of that, I bought (preterite; specific one-time action) postcards.
- Lo vi en 1973, cuando estaba de vacaciones en los Estados Unidos. = I saw (preterite; specific one-time occurrence) it in 1973, when I was (imperfect; background information without a defined timeframe) on vacation in the United States.
Even though the preterite vs. imperfect tense in Spanish can be a common Spanish grammar challenge, most verbs can be used in both tenses and still communicate what you want to say without too much confusion.
Always, often, and other time markers that usually indicate the imperfect tense
If your sentence includes one of these phrases, chances are the associated verb will be in the imperfect tense in Spanish. These phrases indicate actions that took place repeatedly or continuously.
| Spanish | English |
| siempre/casi siempre | always/almost always |
| todos los días | every day |
| todas las semanas | every week |
| todos los meses | every month |
| todos los años | every year |
| a menudo | often |
| muchas veces | many times |
| frecuentemente | frequently |
| generalmente/normalmente | normally |
| de vez en cuando | from time to time |
| mientras | while (indicates an ongoing action) |
The imperfect subjunctive
The subjunctive is one of three modos (moods) in Spanish, along with the indicative and the imperative mood. Sometimes there are reasons that a speaker desires to cast a certain attitude on the verb using the subjunctive mood. When this verb is within a past timeframe, the tense is the imperfect subjunctive.
Forming the imperfect subjunctive
There are two completely acceptable forms of the imperfect tense in the Spanish subjunctive. One has endings with -ra and the other has endings with -se. Other than the -se endings being less common in Latin America than in Spain, there are no differences. They mean the same thing and are interchangeable.
The formula for regular verbs in this tense follows a unique but consistent pattern. Here’s how to say “I were” as in “if I were you.”
- Start with the preterite ellos/ellas/ustedes form of the verb
- The preterite 3rd person plural of ser is fueron.
- Remove the -ron from the end of this form.
- the stem is fue
- Add the appropriate ending for “I”
- add -ra to get fuera or, just as valid, add -se to get fuese
- The phrase would be Si yo fuera tú (if I were you) or Si yo fuese tú.
| Spanish Subject Pronoun | Imperfect Subjunctive -ra Type Endings | Imperfect Subjunctive -se Type Endings |
| yo I | -ra | -se |
| tú you (informal) | -ras | -ses |
| él/ella he/she usted you (formal) | -ra | -se |
| nosotros we | -ramos | -semos |
| vosotros you all (informal, Spain) | -rais | -seis |
| ellos/ellas they ustedes you all | -ran | -sen |
The imperfect subjunctive follows most of the same rules as when to use this mode in the present tense, but does so from a past perspective. One of the most common uses is to discuss hypothetical but untrue situations, combined with the conditional tense in Spanish.
- Si yo fuera rico, compraría esta casa. = If I were rich (I’m not), I would buy this house.
- Si él tuviese un pasaporte, viajaría a España. = If he had a passport (he doesn’t), he would travel to Spain.
Key takeaways about the imperfect tense in Spanish
The imperfect tense is a confidence-boosting tense for learners because it will have you communicating about the past—one of the ways that you can level up from beginner to intermediate level.
- The imperfect tense sets the scene and describes what things were like, including what people wanted, liked, had, and knew.
- The imperfect is used for time, date, age, and weather.
- There are two regular patterns: the -aba type for -AR verbs and the -ía type for both -ER and -IR verbs.
- There are only three irregular verbs to learn: ser, ir, and ver.
- The imperfect subjunctive is the subjunctive mood from a past-tense perspective.
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