1

El Imperfectode los verbos

2

Talking about the past• There are ____ past tenses in

Spanish.

• If the action occurred in the______ and the speaker can tell precisely _____ the action occurred use the __________________.

2

PRETERITE (pretréito)

PASTWHEN

3

Talking about the past• If the action occurred in

the______ and the there is no definite beginning or ending use the _________________.

Las chicas hablaban en inglés. The girls used to speak in English.

(no definite beginning or end)

IMPERFECTO (imperfect)

PAST

The _________________ (past) tense is like a SNAPSHOT of what happened in the past.

The _________________ (past) tense is like an ongoing film of what happened in the past.

PRETERITE

IMPERFECT

El imperfecto

The peterite tells us _____________when an action took place.

The imperfect tells us in ________________.

specifically

general

The Imperfect sets the “scene”.What are some situations that might require the imperfect instead of the preterit?WeatherTimeAgePhysical/personality description

How does it translate to English?There are 4 translations…

yo hablaba = I used to talkI was talkingI talkedI did talk

8

FORMATION OF IMPERFECTTo conjugate regular –ar verbs in the imperfect1. Drop the infinitive ending2. Add “aba”

aba ábamosabas abaisaba aban

9

(-ar verbs)

tomabatomabastomaba

tomábamostomabaistomaban

Por ejemplo:

tomar

10

(-ar verbs)trabajtrabajtrabaj

trabajtrabajtrabaj

Por ejemplo:

trabajar

aba

abas

aba

ábamos

abais

aban

11

(-ar verbs)NecesitarPensarMirarGustarEstar

MandarDarHablarAvisarolvidarse

¡A Practicar!

To conjugate regular –er/-ir verbs in the imperfect1. Drop the infinitive ending2. Add “ía”

ía íamos

ías íaisía ían

(-er / -ir verbs)

comíacomíascomía

comíamoscomíaiscomían

Por ejemplo:

comer

14

(-er/-ir verbs)

vivvivviv

vivvivviv

Por ejemplo:

ía

ías

ía

íamos

íais

ían

15

(-er/-ir verbs)

VenirHacerDecirConocersaber

SalirPonerPoderPedirconducir

¡A Practicar

16

LOS IRREGULARES: Solamente hay ______ en el imperfecto

1. ser=______________ 2. ir=_____________

veía veíamos

veías veíais

veía veían

Era Éramos

Eras Erais

Era eran

Iba Íbamos

Ibas Ibais

Iba iban

3Used to be/was

Used to go/was going

3. ver= ___________________Used to see/was seeing

Some words and phrases indicate repetitive, vague or non-specific time frames, and therefore signal the use of the imperfect.

a menudo (often) a veces (sometimes) cada día (every day) cada semana (every week) cada mes (every month) cada año (every year) con frecuencia (frequently) de vez en cuando (from

time to time) en aquella época (at that

time) frecuentemente

(frequently)

generalmente (usually) muchas veces (many times) mucho (a lot) nunca (never) por un rato (for awhile) siempre (always) tantas veces (so many

times) todas las semanas (every

week) todos los días (every day) todo el tiempo (all the time) varias veces (several times)