The Catalan imperfect presents a past situation from inside its duration. It does not assert the situation's beginning or endpoint. That single viewpoint explains its central uses: habits, ongoing background, simultaneous states, age and clock time, and several distancing effects in requests or imagined play.
English divides these meanings among “used to,” “would,” “was doing,” and the simple past. There is no dependable word-for-word formula. Ask what role the clause plays in the discourse: does it describe the world already in place, or does it add a bounded event to the timeline?
A quick form reminder
This page focuses on use, not full morphology. Regular -ar verbs take the -ava series; most other regular verbs take -ia.
| Type | Singular model | Plural model |
|---|---|---|
| -ar: parlar | parlava, parlaves, parlava | parlàvem, parlàveu, parlaven |
| other regular: perdre | perdia, perdies, perdia | perdíem, perdíeu, perdien |
| irregular ser | era, eres, era | érem, éreu, eren |
First- and third-person singular are identical. The ending agrees with the subject; any weak object pronoun remains separate: la mirava, no ens entenien, hi vivíem. See the dedicated formation pages for spelling details.
Past habits and repeated patterns
Use the imperfect when repeated actions form a routine or characteristic pattern and their individual boundaries are not being counted. Expressions such as cada dia, sovint, sempre, normalment, de petit, and els diumenges often support this reading.
De petit, passava els estius a casa dels avis i anava a la platja cada matí.
As a child, I spent the summers at my grandparents' house and went to the beach every morning.
Abans no agafàveu mai el cotxe per anar al centre.
You never used to take the car to go downtown.
Cada cop que sonava el telèfon, el gos corria cap a la porta.
Every time the phone rang, the dog ran to the door.
English would works for repeated actions—“we would go”—but not normally for past states: English says “we used to know,” not “we would know.” Catalan uses the imperfect in both: hi anàvem and ho sabíem. Do not substitute the Catalan conditional merely because English uses would.
Ongoing background and interruption
The imperfect establishes a situation already underway when a bounded event occurs. English often uses “was/were + -ing,” but the simple Catalan imperfect is normally enough.
Preparava el sopar quan em vas trucar.
I was making dinner when you called me.
Plovia de valent quan el tren va sortir de Girona.
It was pouring when the train left Girona.
In both sentences, the imperfect gives the open background and the periphrastic past introduces the event that advances the timeline. “Long action versus short action” is a misleading rule: va viure trenta anys a París is bounded despite lasting thirty years, while en aquell instant no entenia res is imperfect despite describing a moment.
The progressive estava preparant can replace preparava when the speaker deliberately zooms in on the action's unfolding phase. It is not required simply because English says “was making.” See Imperfect versus Estava plus Gerund.
Simultaneous states and activities
Two or more imperfects often describe situations that coexist within the same past interval. Neither needs to be the “main” event.
Mentre jo rentava els plats, la Núria eixugava els gots i els nens paraven taula.
While I washed the dishes, Núria dried the glasses, and the children set the table.
Ell parlava molt de pressa i jo no l'entenia gaire.
He spoke very quickly, and I didn't understand him very well.
Mentre readily introduces this overlap, but it does not force the imperfect. If both actions are treated as completed wholes, perfective forms are possible: Mentre jo vaig preparar el cafè, ella va parar taula. Tense follows the chosen viewpoint, not the conjunction alone.
Description, age, time, and weather
Descriptions of appearance, surroundings, possession, knowledge, emotion, and circumstance naturally use the imperfect when they set a past scene. Age uses tenir, clock time uses ser, and common weather expressions use verbs such as fer and ploure.
Tenia disset anys, vivia amb els pares i encara no sabia què volia estudiar.
I was seventeen, lived with my parents, and still didn't know what I wanted to study.
Eren les set, feia fred i els carrers estaven buits.
It was seven o'clock, it was cold, and the streets were empty.
La casa tenia les parets blaves i feia olor de cafè acabat de fer.
The house had blue walls and smelled of freshly made coffee.
English uses be for age and weather, but Catalan does not say era disset anys or era fred. The correct lexical choices are tenia disset anys and feia fred. The imperfect supplies viewpoint; the verb itself supplies the kind of relation.
Past habits versus bounded repeated events
Repetition alone does not decide the tense. Compare an open-ended custom with a completed count or closed series.
| Imperfect: habit or pattern | Periphrastic past: bounded series |
|---|---|
| Hi anàvem cada divendres. That was our routine. | Hi vam anar tres divendres seguits. Three visits are counted. |
| Sempre em trucava al vespre. A standing pattern. | Ahir em va trucar quatre vegades. Four completed calls. |
| Treballava de nit. Background schedule. | Va treballar de nit durant un mes. A closed month-long interval. |
Polite distancing
The imperfect can move a present request slightly away from the immediate moment, making it less abrupt. This is common with voler and verbs of inquiry: Volia demanar-te una cosa literally has past morphology but often means “I wanted to ask you something” right now.
Volia saber si encara teniu habitacions per a aquest cap de setmana.
I wanted to know whether you still have rooms for this weekend.
Et trucava perquè necessitava confirmar l'hora de la visita.
I'm calling because I need to confirm the appointment time.
This (polite / informal-to-neutral) use is a pragmatic softener, not a separate conjugation. It is natural in calls, shops, and service encounters. In a very direct emergency, the present is better: Necessito ajuda ara mateix. In highly (formal) correspondence, a conditional such as voldria sol·licitar may provide a more conventionally formal opening.
Imagined roles and unreal framing
Children and adults can use the imperfect to establish a pretend world: the speaker temporarily treats imagined roles as the background rules of the scene.
Fem veure que jo era la metgessa i tu venies perquè et feia mal el braç.
Let's pretend I was the doctor and you came because your arm hurt.
D'acord: nosaltres vivíem en un castell i aquest sofà era el vaixell.
All right: we lived in a castle, and this sofa was the ship.
This (informal) “play imperfect” does not assert a real past. It creates an imagined frame and then speaks from inside it. For ordinary hypothetical conditions, however, use the established conditional system: Si tingués temps, hi aniria. Do not replace that standard pattern with the indicative just because the situation is unreal.
Weak pronouns, negation, and mood
With a finite imperfect, weak pronouns stand before the verb: m'esperava, la coneixíem, hi treballaven, se'n recordava. Negation precedes the cluster.
No me'n recordava perquè llavors no hi donava importància.
I didn't remember it because back then I didn't attach any importance to it.
Indicative imperfect presents the situation as asserted background. Subjunctive is required when the relevant clause is desired, doubted, or otherwise nonasserted: Sabia que venies asserts your coming; Volia que vinguessis presents it as desired. No single “trigger word” can replace reading the relation between clauses.
Mini-dialogue
—Què fèieu els dissabtes quan vivíeu a Olot? —Al matí anàvem al mercat i, si feia bo, dinàvem fora. —I els diumenges? —Normalment ens quedàvem a casa perquè els nens tenien entrenament.
—What did you do on Saturdays when you lived in Olot? —In the morning we went to the market and, if the weather was nice, ate outside. —And on Sundays? —We usually stayed home because the children had practice.
All the imperfects describe routines or circumstances. A question about one particular Saturday would instead invite bounded narration: Què vau fer dissabte passat?
Regional and register notes
The aspectual uses described here are shared across Catalan varieties. The written paradigms may coexist with regional morphology or pronunciation: for example, Northern Catalan has local first-person imperfect forms in -i (regional: Northern Catalan; informal), while the general formal standard uses -ava and -ia. Regional vocabulary can also change the surface sentence without changing its viewpoint.
The polite and play uses are especially sensitive to situation and tone. They are common in speech, but repeated polite imperfects can sound evasive in concise administrative prose (formal). Use a direct present or an explicit formal formula when clarity is more important than conversational softening.
Common Mistakes
1. Translating English habitual would with the conditional.
❌ De petits, aniríem al riu cada tarda.
Incorrect for a real childhood habit — aniríem is conditional.
✅ De petits, anàvem al riu cada tarda.
As children, we would go to the river every afternoon.
2. Using the imperfect for a counted completed event.
❌ Ahir et trucava tres vegades, però no vas contestar.
Wrong viewpoint for three completed calls.
✅ Ahir et vaig trucar tres vegades, però no vas contestar.
Yesterday I called you three times, but you didn't answer.
3. Copying English be for age.
❌ Quan era divuit anys, vaig marxar de casa.
Incorrect — Catalan expresses age with tenir.
✅ Quan tenia divuit anys, vaig marxar de casa.
When I was eighteen, I left home.
4. Overusing the progressive for a neutral routine.
❌ Cada matí estava prenent cafè al mateix bar.
Awkward as a neutral repeated habit.
✅ Cada matí prenia cafè al mateix bar.
Every morning I had coffee at the same café.
5. Choosing mood from volia without reading the meaning.
❌ Volia que venies abans de les vuit.
Incorrect if the coming was desired rather than asserted.
✅ Volia que vinguessis abans de les vuit.
I wanted you to come before eight.
Key Takeaways
Use the imperfect to describe a habit, state, or activity from inside a past frame, without asserting its boundaries. It supplies narrative background, supports overlapping situations, and naturally expresses age, time, and weather with the appropriate Catalan lexical verb. Its polite and play uses extend the same distancing effect beyond literal past time. Choose tense and mood from viewpoint and assertion—not from an English verb form or a memorized trigger.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Regular -ar Verbs in the ImperfectA2 — Form regular Catalan -ar imperfects in -ava and use them for past descriptions, habits, and background activity.
- Regular -er, -re, and -ir Verbs in the ImperfectA2 — Use the shared Catalan -ia imperfect paradigm, including its stress, accents, and diaeresis patterns.
- Imperfect versus Estava plus GerundA2 — Choose between the simple imperfect and estava plus gerund for past background, focused ongoing activity, and interruption scenes.
- Periphrastic Past versus ImperfectB1 — Choose between vaig parlar and parlava by reading event boundaries, narrative foreground, habits, completed counts, and viewpoint.
- Using the Periphrastic PastA2 — Use the periphrastic past for completed events and bounded sequences in a past time frame, especially in ordinary speech.
- Past-Tense ErrorsB1 — Repair Catalan past-tense errors by separating bounded events, background situations, current time frames, and the periphrastic past.