preparation

Preparation:

When is the Imperfect Tense used in Spanish?

We use the imperfect when referring to actions that took place in the past either repeatedly or over an extended period of time. Unlike the preterite, which is used to specify an action either at a particular point in time or number of times, the imperfect indicates that an action took place during a non-specified amount of time or was repeated an indefinite number of times.

The element of time, though certainly in the past, is necessarily not specific. It is impossible to determine when the action began or ended, or the exact time or number of times it occurred, for this specificity is irrelevant.

Consider the following sentences:

a) I used to live in St. Louis.
b) John always ate cereal for breakfast.
c) Mary was a good conversationalist.

a) In the first sentence, the message clearly states that I lived in St. Louis in the past; however, when or for how long is not mentioned. While this action could be quantified (I lived in St. Louis for four years), in this sentence the speaker has chosen not to do so. Thus, in this case, the length of time is irrelevant.

b) In the second sentence, we know that in the past John ate cereal for breakfast. The addition of the word always, however, indicates (1) that he did so many, many times and (2) it would be virtually impossible to find out exactly how many times he did eat cereal for breakfast. In this case, the number of times cannot be determined.

c) The last sentence is a description of something that was ongoing. In fact, there is no real action involved other than being. The time involved most likely would be "most of Mary's life." As in the first sentence, the exact amount of time is irrelevant in this context, and as in the second example, it would be impossible to determine exactly how long she was able to keep up her end of a conversation.

The essence of the imperfect tense is that the specific elements of time are missing. Messages in the imperfect do not tell us when specifically, rather when in general.

Review of Imperfect Tense Endings