El Pretérito Imperfecto

Spanish imperfect past

El Pretérito Imperfecto also known as El Imperfecto and El Copretérito

El Pretérito Imperfecto is the imperfect past tense of the indicative mood. It expresses repeated actions which were happening, habits in the past, actions that used to happen, or for emphasizing the prolongation in time of an action.

For example

This is how El Pretérito Imperfecto is formed:

For -ar verbs

Drop the -ar from the infinitive and add this set of endings:

• Hablar = habl-

For -er and -ir verbs 

Drop the -er/-ir from the infinitive and add this set of endings:

• Comer = com-
• Vivir = viv-

There are only three irregular verbs in El Pretérito Imperfecto:

• Ser (to be)

• Ver (to watch/see)

• Ir (to go)

See also: Spanish Past Tenses and All Spanish Tenses