1 The Imperfect Tense: Irregular VerbsRealidades 2

2 Imperfect Imperfect is used for habitual actions in the past.It tells what someone “used to do,” “would do,” did “over and over”. No specific point in time when the actions started or finished.

3 Imperfect Use for actions that happened repeatedly in past.Tener and vivir, for example, can describe actions that are ongoing. -er and –ir have the same endings, just as they shared a set of endings in Preterite. Be careful with accent marks here!

4 Imperfect Although you can omit the subject pronoun or noun with most verbs most of the time, it is a good idea to use the subject with Imperfect. First person “yo” and third person “él, ella, usted” look exactly alike! Pronouns make it clear who used to do something.

5 ESTAR estaba estabas estábamos estabais estaban

6 TENER tenía tenías teníamos tenías tenían

7 VIVIR vivía vivías vivíamos vivíais vivían

8 The Imperfect There are three irregular verbs in the imperfect: the verbs IR, SER, and VER.

9 IR iba ibas íbamos ibais iban

10 SER era eras éramos erais eran

11 VER veía veías veíamos veíais veían

12 Ten cuidado! Accent marks are very important in writing verbs in Imperfect Tense. Compare the nosotros forms of these three irregular verbs: ibamos eramos veiamos

13 IR iba ibas íbamos ibais iban

14 SER era eras éramos erais eran

15 VER veía veías veíamos veíais veían

16 Preterite The Preterite Tense tells what happened – an action that occurred. There are many irregular verbs in Preterite – we will learn more in the coming months. A Preterite action is completed, with definite beginning and ending.