El Imperfectovs

El pretérito

What is the imperfect tense and when do we use it?

O The imperfect tense is another way of talking about the past. It is used in Spanish to describe:

O Repeated actions in the past: Comíamos a las dos todos los días. (We ate at two every day)

O Background details (what someone or something was like or was doing): El hotel era muy grande. (The hotel was very big.)

O What people used to do and what things used to be like: Antes vivía con mis abuelos, pero ahoravivi sola. (I used to live with my grandparents, but I live on my own now.)

Why is it important?

O To tell a story in the past successfully you

need to be able to use the imperfect tense

for descriptions and repeated actions.

O You should be able to combine the

imperfect with the preterite tense correctly,

in order to successfully express yourself

using past tense in Spanish

Things to look out for

O You use the preterite tense for single

events in the past and the imperfect

tense for repeated or continuous actions

in the past:

When the phone

rang - preterite

I was washing my

hair - Imperfect

How does it work?O The imperfect tense is formed by taking the infinitive

of a verb, removing the endings (-ar, -er, -ir) and then

adding the following endings. Note that –er and –ir

verbs take the same endings in the imperfect.

Hablar Hacer Vivir

yo hablaba hacía vivía

tú hablabas hacías vivías

él/ella hablaba hacía vivía

nosotros/as hablábamos hacíamos vivíamos

vosotros/as hablabais hacíais vivíais

ellos/ellas hablaban hacían vivían

IrregularsO There are three verbs that are irregular in the

imperfect tense:

Ir (to go) Ser (to be) Ver (to see)

yo iba era veía

tú ibas eras veías

él/ella iba era veía

nosotros/as ibamos éramos veíamos

vosotros/as ibais erais veíais

ellos/ellas iban eran veían

Preterite or Imperfect?

O On the following slides you will see some

English sentences in the past tense.

O If you were translating these sentences

into Spanish would you use the preterite

or imperfect tense?

I watched a film last night

I used to walk to school

I went to France last year

The house was big

I woke up at 7am

I woke up at 7am every day

They were happy

¿Qué tal?

O How confident do you feel about when to

use the imperfect tense and when to use

the preterite?