The Imperfect Tense: Regular Verbs

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The Imperfect TenseRegular Verbs

• Page 194
• Realidades 2

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Preterite

• You have already learned to talk about the past
  using the preterite tense for actions that began
  and ended at a definite time.

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Preterite

• Ana cantó en la fiesta anoche.
• Ana sang at the party last night.
• (Completed past action.)

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Imperfect

• The imperfect tense is another way to talk about
  the past. We use it to describe actions without
  any indication of their beginning or end.

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Imperfect

• We use the imperfect to talk about actions that
  happened repeatedly in the past. In English we
  often say used to or would to express this
  idea.

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Imperfect

• Generalmente caminaban mucho.
• Generally they would walk a lot.

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Imperfect

• Expressions such as generalmente, a menudo,
  muchas veces, todos los días, siempre, and nunca
  can cue us to use the imperfect.

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Regular Imperfect

• AR Endings
• -aba
• -abas
• -aba

-ábamos
-aban
Juana ___________ mucho de niña. BAILAR Yo
_______________ cada día. CANTAR Nosotros
___________ en la playa. JUGAR
bailaba
cantaba
jugábamos
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Regular Imperfect

• ER/IR Endings
• -ía
• -ías
• -ía

-íamos
-ían
Elena ___________ mucho de niña. COMER Yo
_______________ en Conroe. VIVIR Ellos siempre
se ___________. PERDERSE
comía
vivía
perdían
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Irregular Imperfect
SER to be yo era nosotros éramos tú eras él
era ellos eran

IR to go yo iba nosotros íbamos tú ibas él
iba ellos iban
VER to see yo veía nosotros veíamos tú
veías él veía ellos veían