How to conjugate spanish verbs in imperfect tense
Mastering the Imperfect Tense in Spanish | The Language Tutor *Lesson 50*
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whatever Inglis bienvenido hi friends
welcome back to another great episode of
the language tutor Spanish series I'm
your profesor de español Danny Evans and
I'm so glad you're here with me on this
lesson and I'm excited about today's
lesson now I'll tell you why
you know we this is lesson 50 we've had
a lot of Spanish lessons so far here in
the language tutor and you know I've
heard a few comments they say hey Danny
you know you've been doing a lot of a
lot of little episodes on grammar and
you covered some grammar points when are
we gonna get some new tenses well the
answer is right now on this lesson as a
matter of fact over the next several
lessons I'm going to be mixing some new
tenses along with a couple of other
little things they're going to help fill
in the gaps too but we're gonna be
getting a lot of new tenses in the next
several episodes and I just want to
really help you open up your
conversation abilities by giving you new
ways to use verbs and today this is
gonna be the imperfect tense also called
imperfect or they indicate evil alright
imperfect tense well I want to start
just by telling you what it is okay now
first thing the imperfect tense it
happened in the past
alright now we already learned the
preterite we learned ARS ers IR s and
the preterite we learned some irregular
verbs in the preterite by the way we'll
have some more coming up as well mix in
a few more in the next in the lessons to
come in the future but you know I still
have some want to cover in the prayer
but
the preterite happened in the past but
so did the imperfect okay
so we need to kind of distinguish when
am I gonna use preterite and when am I
going to use the imperfect tense so we
really need to separate that first
before we start trying to put it into
Spanish it's not hard by the way to put
it in Spanish it's gonna be pretty easy
as a matter of fact but let's first
figure out what the difference is
between the preterite and the imperfect
okay now we know that the preterite
tense happened in the past and it sort
of it happened and it was done and it
was over with kind of a one-time thing
or something that we can put in a
specific frame of time okay so I think I
mentioned this on the preterite episode
you know it's done it's everybody you
know maybe I saw her at the store
yesterday or you know I think I used the
example she gave me some money I mailed
the letter that those are things that
happen they were done they were over
with those are preterite tense now
imperfect tense is something that was
going on in the past and it was going on
continuously it was ongoing it it was
happening over time is something not
something that necessarily happened one
time and it was done and over with okay
so really let's take a minute to look at
the conditions under which we use the
imperfect tense in Spanish okay here's
one ongoing actions like I said anything
that was ongoing in the past okay and
something that was repeated or it was
habitual here's an example I only put up
for you right here
we used to eat at that restaurant every
Sunday now see that was a an ongoing
repeated habitual activity see that
would be the imperfect now by the way I
want to just say something here anytime
you would say in English you
used to do something anytime you say
used to you know that's going to be the
imperfect tense
okay so used to is kind of a dead
giveaway for you I used to eat there I
used to know French whatever the case is
that's a dead giveaway it's imperfect in
Spanish okay so we used to eat at that
restaurant every Sunday that would be
habitual ongoing repeated action they
went to the mall every Saturday night
see that's a habitual repeated action so
that would be that would be the
imperfect tense all right also things
that were in progress in the past things
that were in progress now here's a key
for you remember present progressive we
covered that the present progressive
it's progressing now that's ink right we
use
to say that you know I am studying she
is working well think about things that
were progressing in the past I was
studying she was working those eggs in
the past can be the imperfect tense okay
so they were practicing that's imperfect
it was ongoing all right now let's talk
about when we're telling stories in the
past okay you know we're talking about
he was 30 years old when this happened
and our story begins when I was six
years old see that would be the
imperfect tense we would express that by
saying the imperfect so age is one also
time and dates in the imperfect tense so
it was one o'clock you're telling a
story or describing something that
happened it was one o'clock we would we
would say that time by the imperfect or
it was on March 11th and when this
happened or that happened so so times
and dates can be imperfect tense now
also
descriptions in the past I'm talking
about feelings certain conditions that
you're describing characteristics those
are also imperfect tense now I just want
to give you some examples of those so
you know I want to be vague and say
certain characteristics or whatever
let's get some examples look at this one
the church was beautiful the church was
beautiful and you're talking about
something in the past and and that was
ongoing it was a characteristic ongoing
you might say this one a feeling I was
really sad you know that was that was
ongoing in the past okay you're talking
about characteristics traits of someone
how you would you say it describing
somebody descriptions that's the same in
the when you're talking about it was
ongoing in the past like they were both
very short when they were young they
were both very short when they were
young
that's him perfect weather weather
conditions it was really cold that day
see that was something ongoing okay and
also desires are feeling like I wanted
to leave that place I wanted to leave
that place that wanted was ongoing so
there are a bunch of examples of
feelings and characteristics and again
if you used to do it if you used to do
it then that is going to be a dead
giveaway that it's imperfect here's an
example we used to work at the hospital
we used to work in the hospital that is
definitely imperfect tense and we're not
going to say use to okay we're not going
to say used to we're actually going to
take the verb to work for example in
this sentence we're going to take the
verb to work and put it in the imperfect
and that means you used to do it so we
don't ever say used to in Spanish when
we used to do something we just take
that verb and put it in imperfect okay
now I hope I've given you a good setup
for what
imperfect is and help you get it into
your mind I hope I've helped you to
understand the difference between
imperfect and preterite okay
and if you still need some clarification
I would definitely google that you know
imperfect tense in Spanish because there
are so many great websites out there
that help you understand the difference
a lot of great websites and teaching
sites that have explanations if you need
more on there okay so now how do we do
imperfect tense in Spanish well you
probably guess what I'm about to put up
on the screen the chart here it is okay
now a long time ago I think I mentioned
on early episode that Spanish is a set
of endings all the tenses are different
sets of endings okay so we have in the
imperfect tense we have a set of endings
for the ar verbs and we have a set of
endings for ER s and IR s we know ers
and I ours like to hang out together and
they like to use the same stuff
sometimes so they do they have their own
set of endings and AR has its own set of
endings okay let's start out with the AR
endings
now one thing I want to go ahead and
tell you is that with the imperfect
tense the yo form and the LA IO stead
form used the same conjugation the same
endings okay so that's something you can
go ahead and visually put in your mind
is that the yo form and the la usted are
using the same things okay and so that
kind of helps you visually start laying
out the chart in your head alright let's
go ahead and put those a are imperfect
endings up the first one is i buy i buy
ABA
i buy you know I already said la you'll
stead uses those too so let's go ahead
and put it down here at the bottom left
I buy down there too
all right now in the middle here in the
throw form we've got a bus a bus now
that looks a lot like almost like the
present tense us okay so that's
something we can mentally use to connect
that do form stip
AAS you know to hablas to practicas well
Abbas okay kind of makes sense
all right up there in the top right this
is the only one that has an accent
it's about most about most with that
accent on that eighty right there and
that's the only one on this chart that
uses any accents okay now let's go down
to the bow so throws form have ice have
ice okay
so we start putting these on verbs we
can get some tongue twisters going here
but you know we'll get those they'll get
that in a second it'll be good and then
finally you might be making a little bit
of a bit of a guess right now what would
the ails a single status form be it's a
bottom there you go hon okay now let's
let's look at this in Spanish okay I
used to practice German a lot okay now
the verb to practice is practicar we're
gonna take off the AR just like we
always have okay take off that AR so we
have practicar we take that off and now
we're gonna put the ending on there
practic gaba yo practic gaba
la man mucho okay now that's all we need
we don't say use - all we need to do is
put that ending on there and it means I
used to practice all right sometimes I
have students start going hey how do you
say use you don't have to no problem so
we just put the ending on there
yo practica ba la mine mucho all right
now they were studying they were
studying now there are a couple
different ways to say this but right now
we're just putting it in imperfect tense
AOS and we got a study out of is to
study take off the ending put that
ending on therefore imperfect AOS
estudia bon
Ailsa studia bottom well guys that's how
you do the imperfect they are endings
okay now I do want to encourage you to
practice this in conversation because
you know it can get to be a little bit
of a tongue twister at times
for example the verb hablar when you're
saying that I used to speak you hablaba
or to habla vez la gusta la blah blah
blah blah see there I'm being talked to
a sea right now okay so that can be that
can be something that you need to
practice just to get the flow down all
right now let's clear our chart here and
let's put up the ER and ir endings for
the imperfect tense okay now I want to
go ahead and tell you all of these
endings start with the letter I with an
accent that eeyaa sound okay so you're
gonna have the letter I with an accent
and an A
all right now so the yo form is yeah
yeah
now go ahead and put that down in the
bottom left also yeah
and take a guess at what goes in between
them in between those two there yes
exactly so you see this kind of mix in
the ers and the IRS and the AR is all
together in some ways so yes all right
now let's go to the right of the chart
you've probably already guessing what
this one is
er most er moles in the vosotros form I
bet you're already filling this in on
your chart writing this down
yes yes and finally yawn yawn alright
those are our endings for ers and ir's
now let's put it into context in Spanish
so I wrote letters every week I wrote
letters every week que yo escriba
garthe's todas las semanas que yo s
Crimea cartas told us last Samanas okay
guys that's how you do yours and IR s
now before we end today's lesson I want
to let you know that there are a few
irregular forms surprise right there's
always got to be those troublemakers
alright there's there there are some
irregular forms of the imperfect that I
want to tell
about really quick so you know you may
want to throw down a couple extra little
charts we're gonna do three that just
kind of help you understand some of some
different styles of verbs okay sad is
one of them sad you know to be popping
from a condition occupation place boards
in identification nationality that's
probably old news to you by now but sad
is one of those verbs and so we're not
gonna we're not going to take a form of
sadden and modify it with E or ES or
whatever it actually completely changes
so we're gonna change it to this era era
I was your era or I used to be your era
so we're also gonna put that down on the
bottom left for the LA our stead form
and in the middle we're gonna put eras
to aid us all right now up on the top
right the nosotros form is the only form
that has an accent
it's a damos we were or we used to be
and then only vosotros part of there in
the middle right we have it ice it ice
and then finally that ASAS ustedes form
is erina aaron okay so that's how we say
ser in the imperfect tense alright now I
want to clear this one off and put ear
up there to go this one you would think
it uses you know if something or it
might change to flee something because
we did that in the preterite but it
doesn't even use the v that we use in
the present tense so this one changes to
e by E by on the top left and also on
the bottom left ie by and in the middle
a boss you're probably saying it with me
right now up on the top right we have
iva-mos iva-mos and then a vice and then
Evon on the bottom right
eben and now let's look at one more
irregular and that is the verb VAT which
means to see okay now all of these are
gonna start with ve I with an accent on
that I okay so they I used to see or I
saw in the past or I was seeing your via
and also on the bottom left Vega and in
the middle they yes and then up on the
top right
they yeaaah most and then they ice and
they Ian and that's all of them
guys I have thrown a lot of new stuff at
you this episode so just keep rewinding
keep playing this over until you feel
comfortable and you know I recommend try
to when you're driving down the road in
your car or you're working try to recite
in your head the conditions all the
conditions that you can remember of when
we would use the imperfect tense just
try to pretend that you're the teacher
and just start stating this we use it
under this circumstance and that
circumstance to solidify those
conditions okay because that'll help you
recognize in conversation all I need to
say this in the in the imperfect tense
it helps them okay guys keep practicin
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