Spanish Imperfect Tense

The Spanish imperfect is one of the hardest tenses for English speakers. 

In English we might say, I used to work. In this sentence, no definite time is specified. The only thing we know is that there was a period of time that I worked.

That might be a little confusing so let's see some examples.

You might describe the events preceeding a one time occurrence.

An example would be, While we waited, she served the food.

Enquanto esperábamos, ella servió la comida.

'We waited' is the background event, it tells what was going on. And 'she served the food' is the event that occurred while we waited.

This is very common of the Spanish Imperfect tense. You'll tell what was happening over a period of time but no longer is happening. Then you can tell about an event that happened within that period of time.

Here are some examples of this:

Quando yo vivía en México, mi perro murió.
When I lived in Mexico, my dog died.
Quando yo estudiaba en la escuela, mi papá fue a Inglaterra.
When I studied in school, my dad went to England.

Quando is very common for telling when something used to happen, because it means when.

Here are the -ar, -er, and -ir verb forms in the imperfect.

A quick review before we find out what you know....

Basically, the imperfect is used to tell what used to happen over a period of time, but is no longer happening.

Did you get all that? Let's find out with the mini quiz.

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