Lesson 23: Pretérito imperfecto — the "used to / would" past

Part 1: What is the imperfecto and why do you need it?

In Lessons 21–22 you learned the pretérito indefinido — the snapshot past: "I ate", "he came", "we left". One event, completed, full stop. Now meet the pretérito imperfecto — the second past tense, which does something completely different.

Indefinido = "what happened?" (one event, completed) Imperfecto = "what was going on?" (background, habit, description, ongoing process)

English gives you several ways to render the imperfecto: Yo vivía en Madrid = "I lived" / "I used to live" / "I was living in Madrid". Llovía = "it rained" / "it was raining" / "it used to rain".

The English clue: if you can rephrase your sentence with "used to ___", "would ___" (habit sense — "every summer we would go to the beach"), or "was/were ___ing" — you need the imperfecto. If it's a one-time "and then I did X" — you need the indefinido.

Side by side:

Indefinido (and then…)	Imperfecto (used to / was …ing)
Ayer comí paella. — Yesterday I ate paella.	De niño comía paella los domingos. — As a kid I used to eat paella every Sunday.
Llovió mucho ese día. — It rained a lot that day (and stopped).	Llovía cuando llegué. — It was raining when I arrived (background).
Mi abuela vivió en Madrid diez años. — My grandma lived in Madrid for 10 years (closed chapter).	Mi abuela vivía en Madrid. — My grandma used to live in Madrid (background period).

The full indefinido-vs-imperfecto showdown is Lesson 24. Today's job is just imperfecto — its forms and its uses.

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Part 2: Formation — three paradigms, that's it

-AR verbs: endings -aba

Drop -ar, add:

Person	hablar →
yo	hablaba
tú	hablabas
él / ella / usted	hablaba
nosotros	hablábamos
vosotros	hablabais
ellos / ellas / ustedes	hablaban

Tilde alert: hablábamos — the only form in the paradigm with a tilde. Without it, default stress would fall on -ba- (llana), but we need it on -blá- (esdrújula). Memorize: 1st-person plural — tilde mandatory.

Notice: the yo and él/ella/usted forms are identical — yo hablaba and él hablaba. This holds across the whole imperfecto. Context or an explicit pronoun resolves any ambiguity.

More: trabajar → trabajaba, trabajabas, trabajaba, trabajábamos, trabajabais, trabajaban. Same pattern for cantar, jugar, estudiar — drop -ar, plug in the endings.

-ER and -IR verbs: endings -ía (one paradigm for both!)

Drop -er / -ir, add:

Person	comer →	vivir →
yo	comía	vivía
tú	comías	vivías
él / ella / usted	comía	vivía
nosotros	comíamos	vivíamos
vosotros	comíais	vivíais
ellos / ellas / ustedes	comían	vivían

Tilde alert: every -er/-ir form carries a tilde on -í-. Non-negotiable: without it, comia would read as a single diphthong "KOM-ya", but we want three syllables — "ko-MEE-a". The tilde forces "i" and "a" apart.

More: beber → bebía…, leer → leía…, escribir → escribía…, salir → salía…, dormir → dormía…

Bonus: all -er and -ir verbs conjugate identically in the imperfecto. No stem changes, no spelling tricks. Remember the e→ie, o→ue, e→i migraines in the present? Gone. Dormir is duermo in the present but plain dormía in the imperfecto. The imperfecto undoes all that gymnastics.

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Part 3: Three (and only three!) irregulars

The entire Spanish language has three irregular verbs in the imperfecto. Compare that with the indefinido (Lesson 22), which has dozens. Learn these three and you're done forever.

Person	ser (to be)	ir (to go)	ver (to see)
yo	era	iba	veía
tú	eras	ibas	veías
él / ella / usted	era	iba	veía
nosotros	éramos	íbamos	veíamos
vosotros	erais	ibais	veíais
ellos / ellas / ustedes	eran	iban	veían

Examples:

• Era pequeño. — I was little. Éramos amigos. — We were friends. Eran las tres. — It was three o'clock.
• Iba a la escuela en autobús. — I used to go to school by bus. Íbamos al parque los domingos. — We went to the park on Sundays.
• Veía la tele todas las noches. — I used to watch TV every night.

Why is ver "irregular"? It keeps the e from its old form veer. The endings are perfectly regular (-ía, -ías…), but the stem is ve-, not v-. Just remember: veía, never vía.

Tip: iba, ibas, iban, era, eras, eran — these six short forms show up in literally any past-tense story. Drill them first.

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Part 4: When to use the imperfecto

1. Habitual / repeated actions ("used to do", "would do")

The most common use. Renders as "used to ___", "would ___" (habit sense), or simple past in English.

• De niño jugaba al fútbol todos los días. — As a kid I used to play soccer every day.
• Mi padre fumaba mucho. — My father smoked a lot (back then, not now).
• Los domingos íbamos a la iglesia. — On Sundays we would go to church.

Habit markers: de niño/de pequeño, cuando era joven, siempre, todos los días/veranos, los domingos, a menudo, normalmente, a veces, de vez en cuando, casi nunca.

2. Description in the past — age, time, weather, appearance, state

If in the past you're describing how things were rather than what happened, that's the imperfecto.

• Tenía cinco años. — I was five years old.
• Eran las ocho de la mañana. — It was eight in the morning.
• Hacía frío y llovía. — It was cold and it was raining.
• La casa era grande y tenía un jardín. — The house was big and had a garden.
• Estaba cansado. No quería ir. — I was tired. I didn't want to go.

Mental, emotional, and state verbs (pensar, creer, querer, saber, poder, tener, estar) almost always go in the imperfecto when telling a past story. Sabía la respuesta. — I knew the answer.

3. Background for an indefinido event ("was ___ing when ___")

The long / ongoing background action goes in imperfecto. The sharp, point-in-time event that interrupts it goes in indefinido.

• Llovía cuando llegué. — It was raining (background) when I arrived (event).
• Dormía cuando sonó el teléfono. — I was sleeping when the phone rang.
• Estábamos en casa cuando empezó la tormenta. — We were at home when the storm started.

Rule of thumb: imperfecto is the scene. Indefinido is what happens in the scene. "It was evening, snow was falling, I was reading a book" — three imperfectos. "…and then there was a knock at the door" — indefinido.

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Part 5: Mini-preview of Lesson 24 — imperfecto vs. indefinido

The full breakdown is next lesson. For now, three pairs to calibrate your ear:

Indefinido (what happened)	Imperfecto (how things were / habit)
Anoche vi una película. — Last night I watched a movie.	De niño veía dibujos animados. — As a kid I used to watch cartoons.
Estuve en París en 2019. — I was in Paris in 2019 (trip).	Cuando era pequeño, vivía en París. — When I was little, I lived in Paris.
Hizo mucho frío esa noche. — It was very cold that night (and it ended).	Hacía frío y nevaba. — It was cold and snowing (scene).

Self-test: "Scene/habit, or new event?" Scene/habit → imperfecto. New event → indefinido. This question is the entire payload of Lesson 24.

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