How do I form the imperfect tense in Spanish?

The imperfect tense is used to describe an action in the past that took place over a period of time such as "I was going" or "It was sunny". It is one of the simpler Spanish verbs to conjugate with only two different sets of endings and only a few irregulars. To form it you remove the last two letters of the infinitive and add the verb endings. For -ar verbs, the endings are -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abaís, -aban. For -er/ir verbs, the endings are -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían. For example, to say she was playing you would take the infinitive "jugar", remove -ar and add the singular 3rd person ending to get 'jugaba'.The three irregulars are ser (which becomes, era, eras, era, éramos, eras, eran), ir (which becomes iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban) and ver (which becomes (veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían).

AB
Answered by Alice B. Spanish tutor

3182 Views

See similar Spanish GCSE tutors

Related Spanish GCSE answers

All answers ▸

¿Qué peligros tiene el Internet? ¿Crees que supone una invasión de la privacidad?


What is the difference between the pretérito indefinido and the pretérito imperfecto?


When should you use the preterite tense and when should you use the imperfect tense in Spanish


Tus opiniones sobre tu vida en el colegio


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning