Regular imperfect endings (-aba/-ía)
Drop the infinitive ending and add the imperfect endings. -ar (hablar): hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablabais, hablaban. -er/-ir share one set (comer/vivir): comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían. Every -er/-ir form carries an accent on the í; -ar carries one only on nosotros (hablábamos). The yo and él/ella forms are always identical — context or a pronoun tells them apart.
Only ser, ir, ver are irregular
The imperfect is the most regular tense: only three verbs are irregular — ser (era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran), ir (iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban) and ver (veía, keeping stem vowel e). Every other verb, even ones irregular elsewhere (tener→tenía, hacer→hacía), stays regular. Uses: habitual past (íbamos a la playa cada verano), description (era alto, hacía sol), and a background scene interrupted by a preterite (sonó el teléfono).
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Imperfect used for a single completed event
The imperfect answers "what used to happen", not "what happened once". Two real slips put a single completed action in the imperfect: ✗ durante la excursión visitaba un museo → visité; ✗ el sábado pasado iba a una tienda → fui. The error is tense choice — a marker naming one occasion (ayer, una vez) signals the preterite.
Preterite/imperfect confusion penalised under Accuracy — durante la excursión visitaba un museo (s23 41); el sábado pasado iba a una tienda (w23 41).
Dropping the accent on imperfect endings
Every -er/-ir imperfect form carries a written accent on the í (comía, comíamos, comían), and -ar verbs carry one on the nosotros form (hablábamos). Candidates drop these — comía written "comia", hablábamos written "hablabamos". Unlike the preterite, a missing imperfect accent rarely makes a different word, but examiners still penalise it under Writing Accuracy.
Missing/incorrect accents on past-tense forms penalised under Accuracy every sitting (s23, w23 Paper 41/42).
Narrating completed events in the imperfect
Weaker candidates narrate a whole past sequence in the imperfect where each action is a single completed event: ✗ Ayer me levantaba, desayunaba y salía → me levanté, desayuné y salí. Use the imperfect only for background (description, weather, ongoing action); the events that move the story on take the preterite: Hacía sol cuando salí.
Preterite/imperfect confusion named as a recurring Accuracy issue on the Writing common-errors list (s22–w23).
Do not over-irregularise the imperfect
A verb that is irregular in another tense is usually regular in the imperfect. Candidates over-irregularise: tener→tenía (not "tuvía"), hacer→hacía (not "hizía"), decir→decía, poder→podía. Only ser (era), ir (iba) and ver (veía) break the pattern — everything else takes the plain -aba or -ía endings.
(general FL trap)
ver keeps its stem vowel (veía, not vía)
Ver is regular in its endings but keeps the stem vowel e before them: veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían — never "vía". Candidates drop the vowel or the accent (✗ vía, ✗ veia). It is the only Spanish verb whose imperfect carries an extra stem vowel before an otherwise regular ending.
(general FL trap)
Imperfect is not only was/were + -ing
Some think the imperfect is only for English "was/were + -ing", so a plain past ("I played", "she had") must be preterite. Both false: De niño jugaba al fútbol cada sábado (played = imperfect, repeated); Mi abuela tenía el pelo blanco (had = imperfect). The real test is habit/description/background (imperfect) vs a single bounded event (preterite), not the English form.
Preterite/imperfect confusion tolerated for communication but marked under Accuracy every sitting — rooted in this English-mapping error (s22–w23).
Single event, or habit/description?
Before choosing, ask: does the sentence say what happened once (→ preterite) or what used to happen / what things were like (→ imperfect)? Imperfect signals: todos los días, siempre, mientras, de niño. Preterite signals: ayer, una vez, de repente.
Scene in imperfect, event in preterite
Use the imperfect for scene-setting — weather, time, age, description, an action in progress — then the preterite for the single event that interrupts it: Eran las cinco y hacía frío cuando llegó el autobús. Combining both in one paragraph earns Range marks.
Check imperfect endings and accents
Audit the endings: -ar → -aba -abas -aba -ábamos -abais -aban (accent only on nosotros); -er/-ir → -ía -ías -ía -íamos -íais -ían (accent on every form). Only ser, ir and ver are irregular — almost any other verb takes these plain endings.
The imperfect (el pretérito imperfecto) is the tense for a habitual or repeated action in the past, a description, or an action in progress — "I used to speak" (hablaba), "she was eating" (comía), "it was raining" (llovía).
Drop the infinitive ending and add the imperfect endings. -er and -ir verbs share the same endings.
| Person | -ar (hablar) | -er / -ir (comer / vivir) |
|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaba | comía / vivía |
| tú | hablabas | comías / vivías |
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