Regular -ar Verbs in the Imperfect | Catalan Grammar

Regular Catalan -ar verbs form the imperfect with the highly recognizable -ava series: parlava, parlaves, parlava, parlàvem, parlàveu, parlaven. These forms place a situation inside a past time frame without presenting its endpoint. That makes them natural for descriptions, repeated activities, states in progress, and the background against which a completed event occurs.

English uses several translations—“spoke,” “used to speak,” “would speak,” or “was speaking”—for this one Catalan tense. The correct choice therefore comes from viewpoint and discourse structure, not from matching one English expression.

Forming the paradigm

Remove -ar from the infinitive and add the imperfect endings. With parlar, the stem is parl-.

Person	Ending	parlar	English guide
jo	-ava	parlava	I spoke / used to speak / was speaking
tu	-aves	parlaves	you spoke / used to speak / were speaking
ell / ella / vostè	-ava	parlava	he/she spoke; you spoke
nosaltres	-àvem	parlàvem	we spoke / used to speak / were speaking
vosaltres	-àveu	parlàveu	you all spoke / used to speak / were speaking
ells / elles / vostès	-aven	parlaven	they spoke / used to speak / were speaking

Quan vivia a Reus, treballava en una llibreria petita.

When I lived in Reus, I worked in a small bookshop.

De jove, parlaves amb tothom i no et feia vergonya res.

When you were young, you talked to everyone and weren't embarrassed by anything.

First- and third-person singular are identical: jo parlava and ella parlava. Catalan usually omits an obvious subject, so context does most of the work. Add jo, ell, or ella when contrast or real ambiguity makes it useful, not as an automatic translation of every English pronoun.

Stress and spelling

The stressed vowel belongs to the -ava sequence: par-LA-va, par-LA-ves, par-LA-va, par-LÀ-vem, par-LÀ-veu, par-LA-ven. Only first- and second-person plural need a written accent: parlàvem, parlàveu. The accent is grave because stressed Catalan a takes a grave accent.

The imperfect ending is always written with v, not b: cantava, estudiaves, esmorzàvem. This is a major transfer trap for learners familiar with Spanish -aba.

A l'institut estudiàvem junts a la biblioteca dos cops per setmana.

In secondary school we used to study together in the library twice a week.

Mentre vosaltres preparàveu el sopar, jo parava taula.

While you were preparing dinner, I was setting the table.

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There are two visual anchors for the whole paradigm: v in every form, and a grave accent only in -àvem and -àveu. If you can write parlàvem correctly, you can transfer the same ending to thousands of verbs.

Past descriptions: setting the scene

The imperfect presents a property or situation as holding during the past scene. It does not assert when that property began or ended. Weather, appearance, age, surroundings, and ongoing circumstances therefore favor it.

La casa quedava al final del carrer i tenia un jardí que semblava abandonat.

The house stood at the end of the street and had a garden that looked abandoned.

Plovia, bufava vent i els carrers estaven gairebé buits.

It was raining, the wind was blowing, and the streets were almost empty.

In the first example, quedava and semblava build the setting; they do not narrate separate completed events. In the second, plovia, bufava, and estaven create a background frame into which a completed action could enter: De sobte, va arribar un taxi.

This explains why “permanent versus temporary” is not the rule. A short situation can use the imperfect if viewed from inside, and a years-long period can use the periphrastic past if treated as a bounded whole. Compare Treballava a Girona quan ens vam conèixer (“I was working in Girona when we met”) with Va treballar a Girona del 2019 al 2022 (“She worked in Girona from 2019 to 2022”).

Repeated and habitual past activity

With expressions such as cada dia, sovint, sempre, normalment, and els diumenges, the imperfect presents a recurring pattern rather than counting completed occasions one by one.

Cada diumenge esmorzàvem amb els avis i després passejàvem pel passeig marítim.

Every Sunday we had breakfast with our grandparents and then walked along the seafront.

Els nens jugaven al pati fins que es feia fosc.

The children used to play in the courtyard until it got dark.

English would can translate this habitual meaning, but only when the context already establishes past time. Catalan needs no conditional: “Every summer we would rent a flat” is Cada estiu llogàvem un pis, not llogaríem. English used to is also just a translation option, not a separate Catalan construction required in every habitual sentence.

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Ask whether the clause advances the story by one bounded event or describes the world in which events happened. The periphrastic past usually advances the story; the imperfect usually supplies its scenery, routine, or ongoing frame.

An activity in progress without an obligatory progressive

Catalan often uses the simple imperfect where English strongly prefers “was/were + -ing.” The simple form is enough when the aim is to locate an ongoing activity in the background.

T'esperava davant del cinema quan em vas enviar el missatge.

I was waiting for you outside the cinema when you sent me the message.

The more explicit progressive t'estava esperant is also possible, but it zooms in on the activity as unfolding. It is not automatically more accurate. Overusing estar + gerund produces English-shaped Catalan and hides the imperfect's normal background function. See Imperfect Progressive for the deliberate contrast.

Negation, weak pronouns, and agreement

An ordinary finite imperfect places weak pronouns before the verb: em mirava, la buscàvem, hi treballaven. Negation precedes the pronoun cluster: no + pronoun + imperfect.

No m'escoltaves perquè miraves el partit al mòbil.

You weren't listening to me because you were watching the match on your phone.

A aquella hora encara hi treballaven tres persones.

At that hour, three people were still working there.

Do not attach a weak pronoun to an ordinary indicative imperfect: mirava-la is not the neutral standard pattern. The ending already agrees with the subject; the pronoun represents an object, location, or other complement.

A short dialogue in context

—On dinàveu quan treballàveu al centre? —Normalment compràvem alguna cosa i dinàvem al parc.

—Where did you have lunch when you worked downtown? —We normally bought something and ate in the park.

Every imperfect in the exchange describes a routine. If the speaker instead reported one particular Tuesday, the bounded actions would be natural in the periphrastic past: Dimarts vam comprar entrepans i vam dinar al parc.

Regional and register notes

The written -ava paradigm is standard throughout the Catalan-speaking territory. Pronunciation varies substantially: unstressed vowels differ between Eastern and Western varieties, but the spelling does not change to imitate vowel reduction.

(regional: Northern Catalan) (informal) First-person singular forms in -i, such as cantavi beside general cantava, occur in local speech. Neutral formal writing uses the shared -ava form. (regional: Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, and Alguerese) Local phonetics and lexicon may make an example sound regional, but learners can use the written paradigm above across standards unless deliberately transcribing speech.

Viewpoint, assertion, and mood

The imperfect on this page is indicative: it presents a past situation as part of the speaker's account. The same time reference may need subjunctive when the event is desired or nonasserted. Compare Treballaves des de casa (“You worked from home,” asserted description) with Volia que treballessis des de casa (“I wanted you to work from home,” desired event). A word such as volia does not mechanically force every later verb into one mood; its semantic relation to that clause does.

Likewise, do not copy a Spanish auxiliary or blend tenses. Catalan says parlava for the imperfect and vaig parlar for a bounded past event—never a hybrid such as vaig parlava or he parlava.

Common Mistakes

1. Writing Spanish b instead of Catalan v.

❌ Cada tarda caminaba fins a casa.

Incorrect — Catalan regular -ar imperfects are written with v.

✅ Cada tarda caminava fins a casa.

Every afternoon I walked home.

2. Dropping the plural accents.

❌ Abans treballavem junts i dinaveu aquí.

Incorrect — -àvem and -àveu require a grave accent.

✅ Abans treballàvem junts i dinàveu aquí.

We used to work together, and you had lunch here.

3. Using the periphrastic past for an unbounded routine.

❌ De petit, vaig jugar al carrer cada tarda.

Wrong viewpoint for the intended repeated childhood habit.

✅ De petit, jugava al carrer cada tarda.

As a child, I used to play in the street every afternoon.

4. Copying an English progressive automatically.

❌ Sempre estava esmorzant a les set.

Awkward for a simple routine — the progressive unnecessarily foregrounds each activity.

✅ Sempre esmorzava a les set.

I always had breakfast at seven.

5. Attaching a weak pronoun to the finite imperfect.

❌ Buscava-la pertot arreu.

Incorrect neutral placement with a finite indicative verb.

✅ La buscava pertot arreu.

I was looking for her everywhere.

Key Takeaways

Build a regular -ar imperfect with the stem plus -ava, -aves, -ava, -àvem, -àveu, -aven. Write v throughout and preserve the grave accents in the two stressed plural endings. Use these forms to describe a past scene, routine, or activity viewed from within; switch to the periphrastic past when you choose to present an event as a bounded whole.

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