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El imperfecto.

The Spanish imperfect is the "background" past tense — what used to happen, what was happening, and the descriptions and settings of past events. Pair it with the preterite (one-off events) and you've got both halves of the past covered. Below: when to use it, how to form it, the time markers that signal it, model sentences, common mistakes, and a 60-second drill.

When to use it

Habits, descriptions, settings in the past

Three jobs: past habits ("I used to play football"), continuous past actions ("I was watching TV"), and descriptions of past states — age, weather, time, mood, what people and places were like.

The give-away in English: "used to", "was -ing", "would always". And anything where you're painting the scene rather than reporting one finished event — that scene-setting is imperfect, the one event inside it is preterite.

Model sentence

Cuando era pequeño, jugaba al fútbol todos los días.

When I was little, I used to play football every day.

How to form it

Regular imperfect endings

-AR verbs

e.g. hablar — to speak

yo	hablaba
tú	hablabas
él / ella	hablaba
nosotros	hablábamos
vosotros	hablabais
ellos	hablaban

-ER verbs

e.g. comer — to eat

yo	comía
tú	comías
él / ella	comía
nosotros	comíamos
vosotros	comíais
ellos	comían

-IR verbs

e.g. vivir — to live

yo	vivía
tú	vivías
él / ella	vivía
nosotros	vivíamos
vosotros	vivíais
ellos	vivían

Spot the pattern: -ER and -IR verbs share the same endings (-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían) — and stem-changers don't change in this tense. Notice "yo" and "él/ella" are identical for all three groups, so you'll usually need context (or a pronoun) to tell who's doing the action.

Only 3 irregulars. The imperfect is the easiest GCSE tense to learn. Every single verb in Spanish takes the regular endings — except for three. Memorise them and you've mastered the whole tense.

ser to be era · eras · era · éramos · erais · eran

ir to go iba · ibas · iba · íbamos · ibais · iban

ver to see veía · veías · veía · veíamos · veíais · veían

Signal words

Time markers — words that scream "imperfect!"

If you see these in a question, the answer almost certainly needs the imperfect — even when the same English phrase ("every day") could mean present in a different context.

de pequeño/aas a child

cuando era niño/awhen I was a child

cuando tenía X añoswhen I was X

de jovenas a young person

antesbefore / previously

en el pasadoin the past

siemprealways (back then)

normalmentenormally (back then)

todos los díasevery day (back then)

a menudooften (back then)

cada díaeach day

mientraswhile

cada veranoeach summer

en aquel entoncesback then

Model sentences

In real GCSE topics

Childhood Cuando era pequeño, jugaba al fútbol todos los días. When I was little, I used to play football every day.

School De joven, estudiaba mucho y siempre sacaba buenas notas. As a young person, I used to study a lot and always got good grades.

Free time Antes, iba a la piscina dos veces a la semana. Before, I used to go to the pool twice a week.

Family (description) Mi abuela era muy simpática y vivía en Madrid. My grandmother was very friendly and lived in Madrid.

Continuous past Mientras veía la tele, mi hermano hacía sus deberes. While I was watching TV, my brother was doing his homework.

Setting the scene Hacía sol y había muchos turistas en la playa. It was sunny and there were lots of tourists at the beach.

Where pupils slip up

Common mistakes

Preterite vs imperfect

Imperfect = "used to / was -ing". Preterite = "did once". Ayer jugaba al fútbol (sounds wrong — it was one finished event) → Ayer jugué al fútbol.

Age in the past

Spanish uses imperfect for ages in the past, not preterite. Cuando tuve 10 años… → Cuando tenía 10 años… (when I was 10).

Weather descriptions

Describing past weather is always imperfect. Hizo frío en mi infancia → Hacía frío en mi infancia (it was cold in my childhood).

"Used to" — no extra verb needed

The imperfect already means "used to". Don't add anything. Usaba jugar → jugaba (I used to play).

Watch the accent on -íamos / -íais

Both nosotros and vosotros forms of -ER and -IR verbs take an accent: comíamos, vivíais. -AR verbs only accent ábamos.

Two pasts in one sentence

"While I was eating dinner, my phone rang" uses both. Imperfect for the ongoing background (cenaba) + preterite for the one-off event (sonó): Mientras cenaba, sonó mi móvil.

Drill · 60-second sprint

Conjugate the imperfect

Imperfect Sprint

You have 60 seconds. A pronoun + verb appears — pick the correct imperfect form from four options. With only three irregulars in the whole tense, this one is the most learnable. Streak resets on a miss.

Best ever: 0

⏱ 60s Aciertos 0 🔥 Racha 0

Conjugate in the imperfect

yo—

¡Tiempo!

—

Aciertos

Mejor

Precisión