Talking about the past
Building a “used to” form
Imperfect verb forms
Use imperfect forms for past habits or an action viewed as ongoing.
Endings refresher
Imperfect
Remove -ar, -er or -ir. The imperfect endings are the same for -er and -ir verbs.
| Person | -ar ending | -er / -ir ending |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -aba | -ía |
| tú | -abas | -ías |
| él / ella / usted | -aba | -ía |
| nosotros / nosotras | -ábamos | -íamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -abais | -íais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aban | -ían |
hacer → hac- + -ía → yo hacía
- Hacer is regular in the imperfect, even though it has irregular forms in other tenses: hago, hice, haré.
- Yo and él / ella / usted share the same imperfect ending. Keep the accent in every -ía form and in nosotros -ábamos.
- These charts use tú. Vosotros / vosotras is mainly used in Spain; ustedes uses the final row. Vos forms vary by region.
Imperfect irregulars
Ser, ir and ver are the standard imperfect exceptions. Hacer follows the regular -er pattern.
| Person | Ser | Ir | Ver |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | era | iba | veía |
| tú | eras | ibas | veías |
| él / ella / usted | era | iba | veía |
| nosotros / nosotras | éramos | íbamos | veíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | erais | ibais | veíais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | eran | iban | veían |
yo era; yo iba; yo veía
- Being irregular in another tense does not make a verb irregular here: tener → tenía; hacer → hacía.
- These charts use tú. Vosotros / vosotras is mainly used in Spain; ustedes uses the final row. Vos forms vary by region.
The pattern
- -ar: hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablabais, hablaban.
- -er/-ir: comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían.
- Three main irregular verbs: ser → era, ir → iba, ver → veía.
De niña, hablaba con mi abuela cada día.
As a child, I used to talk with my grandmother every day.
Why it works: Hablar takes -aba; cada día describes the habit in this example.
Notice the difference
De niños, hablábamos con mi abuela cada día.
As children, we used to talk with my grandmother every day.
Why it works: Nosotros uses -ábamos, with a written accent.
One thing to watch for
Yo and él/ella share a form: hablaba can mean I was speaking or she/he was speaking. Context supplies the subject.