Capitulo Nueve - Gramatica Uno - The Imperfect Tense

Question 1

What is the “imperfect tense”?

Answer 1

The imperfect tense is a past tense in Spanish that signifies continuous or indefinite actions or conditions in the past.

There are not hard and fast rules for this, but it is more of a feeling to develop.

Question 2

When, specifically, should the imperfect be used in Spanish grammar?

Answer 2

HEPAT (Habit, emotions, participials, age, time)

• To talk about what you habitually did or used to do:

Todos los dias, desayunaba a las ocho y luego caminaba a la escuela.
Every day I used to eat breakfast at 8 and then I walked to school.

• To describe an action in progress (participle) in the past:

Viviamos en Asuncion con me prima Enedina y sus padres
We were living in Asuncion with my cousin Enedina and her parents.

• To tell time in the past:

Por lo general, eran las diez de la noche cuando comíamos.
It was usually ten at night when we would eat dinner.

• To describe emotional or physical conditions in the past:

Todos estábamos muy contentos y nadie se enfermó ese año. Nos sentíamos muy afortunados.
We were all very happy and no one got sick that year. We felt very fortunate.

• To describe ongoing weather conditions in the past:

Llovía mucho en paraguay en esa época.
It rained a lot in Paraguay during that time.

• To tell someone’s age in the past:

Enedina tenía quince anos ese ano.
Enda was fifteen that year.

Question 3

There are several ways to render the imperfect tense in English. For example, “comía” could be translated as:

Answer 3

I ate (routinely)
I was eating
I would eat
I used to eat

Question 4

Are there any verbs that change their stems in the imperfect tense?

Answer 4

No. Other than a few irregular verbs (ir, ser, ver), every verb keeps its original stem in the imperfect.

Question 5

Conjugate an -ar imperfect tense verb:

Answer 5

Cenar - to dine

cenaba
cenabas
cenaba

cenábamos
cenabais
cenaban

Question 6

What is the difference in verb endings between an imperfect -er and -ir conjugations?

Answer 6

There isn’t one; they are exactly the same.

Question 7

Conjugate an -er and an -ir imperfect tense verb:

Answer 7

comer - to eat

comía
comías
comía

comíamos
comíais
comían

______

pedir - to ask

pedía
pedías
pedía

pedíamos
pedíais
pedían

Question 8

Conjugate the verb “ir” into the imperfect tense:

Answer 8

ir - to go

iba
ibas
iba

íbamos
ibais
iban

Question 9

Conjugate “ser” into the imperfect tense:

Answer 9

ser - to be

era
eras
era
éramos
erais
eran

Question 10

Conjugate “ver” into the imperfect tense:

Answer 10

ver - to see

veía
veías
veía

veíamos
veíais
veían

Question 11

What is the imperfect conjugation of “hay”?

Answer 11

Había.

Había un restaurante muy bueno allí.

Question 12

What is the main (ideal) difference between the preterite and the imperfect tenses?

Answer 12

The preterite should reflect defined or completed actions in the past. That is, they refer to a more certain point when something happened, began happening, stopped happening, or was the pivotal singular moment which changed ongoing background events.

I arrived in Argentina in January 2007.
I got sick 2 weeks ago.
When Geoffrey walked in, everybody was pissed.

___

The imperfect reflects the opposite: actions that occurred over a period of time or recurrently.

I was in Panama in 2007.
I was sick for the last two weeks.