Imperfect Tense
Imperfect tense—el tiempo imperfecto. The imperfect tense of the indicative mood is for past actions when the speaker wants to emphasize one of the following aspects:
Continuous—an single action that progressed continuously over time in the past.
Repetitive—a series of an action that repeated immediately after it has been completed.
Habitual—a series of an action that repeats periodically over time.
Continuous—an single action that progressed continuously over time in the past.
Repetitive—a series of an action that repeated immediately after it has been completed.
Habitual—a series of an action that repeats periodically over time.
Sample Sentences:
- La Navidad íbamos a la casa de la abuelita. (We used to go to Grandma's house on Christmas. —habitual)
- Gritábamos hasta que vino la policía. (We screamed until the cops came. —repetitive)
- De niños mamá nos preparaba el desayuno todos los días. (Mama made breakfast every day when we were kids. —habitual)
- Ella dormía cuando nos fuimos. (She was sleeping when we left. —continuous)
- Yo estornudaba hasta que todos se fueron. (I just kept sneezing until everybody left. —repetitive)
- Yo nunca sabía hacer eso. (I never knew how to do that. —continuous)
- Ayer cocinaban todo el día. (They were cooking all day yesterday. —continuous)
It's important to maintain the distinction between the imperfect tense and the preterit tense, which describes simple completed actions in the past. Standard English does not code the imperfect/preterit distinction as neatly as Spanish does; consequently, we can't rely on the English form to tell us if a verb should be translated using the preterit or imperfect.
