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The key rules of this unit in two minutes. Tap the speaker to hear each example.
The imperfect: how things used to be
For habits and descriptions in the past, Spanish uses the imperfect. -ar verbs end in -aba (jugaba), -er/-ir verbs in -ía (tenía, vivía).
- De niño jugaba al fútbol.As a child I used to play football.
- Vivíamos en un pueblo.We lived in a village.
Only three irregulars
Good news: only ser (era), ir (iba) and ver (veía) are irregular in the imperfect.
- Era muy tímida.I was very shy.
- Íbamos a la playa todos los veranos.We went to the beach every summer.
Habit or single event?
Imperfect for the background and what happened again and again; the past tense from Unit 10 for a single event: siempre iba … pero un día fui …
- Siempre iba en bici, pero ayer fui en coche.I always went by bike, but yesterday I went by car.