The imperfect endings for -er and -ir verbs are identical — the two conjugations merge completely in this tense. There is one set of endings (-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían) and you apply it to both comer and vivir, to beber and escribir, to aprender and salir. Every single form carries an obligatory accent on the -í-. This page covers the endings, the peninsular vosotros form, why every accent matters, and the meanings the imperfect carries when you reach for it.
The endings
Drop the -er or -ir of the infinitive and add the personal endings below. The same set applies to both conjugations.
| Subject | Ending | comer → | vivir → |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -ía | comía | vivía |
| tú | -ías | comías | vivías |
| él / ella / usted | -ía | comía | vivía |
| nosotros / nosotras | -íamos | comíamos | vivíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -íais | comíais | vivíais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -ían | comían | vivían |
The pattern is so consistent it almost feels like a freebie. Three observations:
- Every form takes the accent on -í-. This is not optional. Comia, vivia, comiamos are misspellings, not casual variants.
- Comer and vivir — and by extension every -er and -ir regular verb — share exactly the same endings. There is no distinction in the imperfect between the two conjugations.
- Yo and él/ella/usted are identical (comía, vivía) — just like the -ar imperfect (hablaba). Context disambiguates.
Cuando vivíamos en Lavapiés, comíamos casi todos los días en un bar de barrio.
When we lived in Lavapiés, we used to eat at a neighbourhood bar almost every day.
Mis abuelos escribían cartas largas cada domingo, una costumbre que ya nadie tiene.
My grandparents used to write long letters every Sunday — a custom no one keeps anymore.
Why every accent is obligatory
The accent in comía, vivías, comían is not decoration — it is doing real phonological work. Without it, the -i- would form a diphthong with the -a- (ia as a single syllable, like in Italia or gracia). With the accent, the two vowels separate into a hiatus — two distinct syllables, co-mí-a, vi-ví-a.
This matters because the verb is stressed on the -í-. The accent both breaks the diphthong and marks the stressed syllable in one stroke. Drop it and you have changed the stress pattern of the word entirely, producing a form that no longer exists in the language.
- Comia (without accent) — would be pronounced co-mia, stressed on co-. Not a Spanish word.
- Comía (with accent) — pronounced co-mí-a, stressed on mí-. The imperfect of comer.
The same logic governs every form in the paradigm. Vivíais needs the accent because the stress falls on the -í- (vi-ví-ais, three syllables), not on the vi- that a default-stress reading would assign. Comíamos needs the accent because the actual stress is -mí- (co-mí-a-mos), not -mia- as a non-accented reading would suggest.
The vosotros form: -íais
The peninsular vosotros form ends in -íais: comíais, vivíais, escribíais, bebíais, salíais. It looks heavy on paper but it is one of the most common verb endings in everyday Spain Spanish — you'll hear it constantly in family conversations, classroom talk, and friend-group reminiscence.
Two technical notes that often trip up A2 learners:
- The accent is obligatory and falls on the -í-: com-í-ais, three syllables. Compare with the -ar equivalent hablabais (ha-bla-bais, three syllables, no accent because stress is default on -ba-). This is the point students confuse most: -abais takes no accent, -íais does.
- The -ais part is a single diphthong syllable: com-í-*ais, pronounced as one unit. The accent on -í- tells you the stress is on the previous syllable.
¿Cuántos años teníais cuando os mudasteis a Bilbao?
How old were you (guys) when you moved to Bilbao?
Vosotros vivíais en el quinto, ¿verdad? El piso del ascensor que siempre se estropeaba.
You used to live on the fifth floor, right? The flat in the building with the lift that was always breaking down.
Three model verbs side by side
| Subject | beber (-er) | escribir (-ir) | salir (-ir) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | bebía | escribía | salía |
| tú | bebías | escribías | salías |
| él / ella / usted | bebía | escribía | salía |
| nosotros / nosotras | bebíamos | escribíamos | salíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | bebíais | escribíais | salíais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | bebían | escribían | salían |
Note that salir — irregular in the present (salgo) — is perfectly regular in the imperfect. The same is true for almost every irregular verb in Spanish: in the imperfect, irregular present-tense quirks vanish. Tener gives you tenía, tenías, not tengaba; poder gives podía, podías, not puedía; decir gives decía, decías, not digaba or dija. Only three verbs in the entire language are irregular in the imperfect: ser, ir, and ver. Every other Spanish verb — including the worst-behaved ones in other tenses — follows the -ía pattern in the imperfect.
This is genuinely good news. You learn one set of endings and immediately conjugate thousands of -er and -ir verbs in the imperfect, even the ones that have given you trouble elsewhere.
Antes salíamos casi cada fin de semana, pero ahora con los niños es imposible.
We used to go out almost every weekend, but now with the kids it's impossible.
Mi hermano tenía un perro que dormía en el sofá y nadie se atrevía a moverlo.
My brother had a dog that slept on the sofa and nobody dared to move it.
Why -er and -ir merge
In the present indicative, -er and -ir verbs differ in two places: the nosotros form (comemos vs vivimos) and the vosotros form (coméis vs vivís). In every other tense and mood the two conjugations either merge completely or differ only in tiny, predictable ways.
In the imperfect they fully merge. There is no point in distinguishing "an -er imperfect" from "an -ir imperfect" — there is just one imperfect for both. This makes the imperfect one of the easiest tenses to master in the whole language. Once you've internalised the six -ía endings, you're done.
The meanings: what to do with this tense
The imperfect of -er and -ir verbs carries the same three meanings as the -ar imperfect:
1. Habitual past
De adolescente, leía novelas hasta las tres de la mañana — al día siguiente no había quien me despertara.
As a teenager, I'd read novels until three in the morning — the next day nobody could get me up.
En el pueblo de mi madre todos conocían a todos y cualquier cotilleo corría en cinco minutos.
In my mother's village, everyone knew everyone and any piece of gossip would spread in five minutes.
2. Ongoing action in the past
Subía la escalera con las bolsas cuando se me cayeron las llaves entre los peldaños.
I was going up the stairs with the bags when my keys fell between the steps.
Comíamos en silencio porque mi padre estaba viendo el telediario.
We were eating in silence because my father was watching the news.
3. Description and background — including age, states, mental and physical conditions
Tenía veintidós años, vivía con tres amigas en un piso minúsculo y no sabía lo que quería hacer con mi vida.
I was twenty-two, I lived with three friends in a tiny flat, and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.
La señora del 4ºB siempre llevaba unas zapatillas de andar por casa rosas y olía a colonia de bebé.
The lady from 4B always wore pink house slippers and smelled of baby cologne.
Telling your age in the past is a textbook case for the imperfect: tenía veintidós años, never tuve veintidós años (which would mean something like "I was twenty-two for a bounded period"). The same holds for past mental states (sabía, quería, pensaba, creía) and physical states (estaba cansado, tenía hambre, sentía frío).
Source-language note for English speakers
English distinguishes I ate, I was eating, I used to eat, and I would eat with completely different surface forms. Spanish folds all of these into comía. This is freeing once you accept it: you don't have to choose between progressive and habitual on the Spanish side — the imperfect simply doesn't make that distinction.
The trap is in the reverse direction. When you go from a Spanish comía into English, you have to read context to decide whether to translate it as was eating, used to eat, or just plain ate. That decision belongs to the translator, not the original Spanish text. Get used to letting the imperfect do its work without trying to overspecify it in your head.
The other trap: English speakers sometimes use was ___ing as a default for any past action that took time, and then over-translate this into Spanish as estaba comiendo, estaba escribiendo. In most cases the plain imperfect (comía, escribía) is the more natural Spanish choice. Reserve estaba + gerund for when you want to emphasize that an action was specifically in progress at a precise moment.
Cuando me llamaste, yo cenaba.
When you called me, I was having dinner. (perfectly fine — plain imperfect)
Cuando me llamaste, yo estaba cenando justo en ese momento.
When you called, I was right in the middle of having dinner. (estaba + gerund for emphasis)
A pair of -ir verbs that look irregular but aren't
Two -ir verbs that learners often expect to misbehave in the imperfect:
- decir → decía, decías, decía, decíamos, decíais, decían. Yes, the verb that gives you digo, dije, diré, di in other tenses is completely regular here.
- traer → traía, traías, traía, traíamos, traíais, traían. Same story — the -j- stem of the preterite (traje, trajimos) vanishes; the -aer infinitive treats -er as its base and gets the regular -ía endings.
The pattern: in the imperfect, the verb returns to its plain infinitive stem (minus the -er/-ir) and accepts the regular endings. Even oír, irregular almost everywhere, gives oía, oías, oíamos, oíais, oían — with the obligatory accent on -í- for the hiatus.
Mi abuelo siempre decía que el café de Madrid no llegaba al de Murcia.
My grandfather always used to say that Madrid's coffee couldn't hold a candle to Murcia's.
Common mistakes
❌ De pequeña vivia en un pueblo cerca de Valencia.
Wrong: the imperfect of vivir requires the accent on -í-.
✅ De pequeña vivía en un pueblo cerca de Valencia.
Correct: vivía with obligatory accent.
❌ Mis padres bebian café solo después de cenar.
Wrong: bebían needs the accent on -í-.
✅ Mis padres bebían café solo después de cenar.
Correct: bebían with accent.
❌ ¿Qué haciais en Galicia el verano pasado?
Wrong: missing accent on -í-. The vosotros form of -er/-ir imperfects (-íais) always carries the accent — unlike the -ar vosotros form (-abais), which does not.
✅ ¿Qué hacíais en Galicia el verano pasado?
Correct: hacíais with the obligatory accent on -í-.
❌ Cuando me llamaste, yo estaba cenando — y por eso no contesté la llamada que duraba diez segundos.
Wrong context: 'lasted ten seconds' is a bounded duration, requires preterite.
✅ Cuando me llamaste, yo estaba cenando — y por eso no contesté la llamada, que duró diez segundos.
Correct: duró (preterite) for the closed duration.
❌ Cuando éramos jóvenes salimos los viernes a un bar de jazz.
Wrong: 'used to go out on Fridays' is habitual — needs imperfect.
✅ Cuando éramos jóvenes salíamos los viernes a un bar de jazz.
Correct: salíamos for habitual past.
Key takeaways
- The -er and -ir imperfect endings are identical: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían.
- Every form takes an obligatory accent on the -í-. Without it the word is misspelt and the stress pattern is wrong.
- The peninsular vosotros form is -íais (comíais, vivíais), with an accent — unlike the -ar form -abais which carries no accent.
- Yo and él/ella are identical (comía, vivía); context disambiguates.
- Almost every -er and -ir verb is regular in the imperfect, including verbs that are irregular elsewhere (decir, traer, tener, salir, poner, venir, hacer, oír). Only three verbs are irregular in the imperfect: ser, ir, ver.
- Use this tense for habits, ongoing actions, and descriptions in the past — the same meanings the -ar imperfect carries.
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- Imperfecto: verbos regulares en -arA2 — The regular -ar imperfect — endings -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban — with the obligatory accent on nosotros, the unaccented peninsular vosotros form, and the meanings (habitual, background, ongoing) that this tense carries in Spain.
- Imperfecto para descripcionesA2 — The imperfect is the descriptive tense of past Spanish: physical appearance, character, emotional state, weather, settings, the look and feel of a moment. Where the preterite advances a story, the imperfect paints the scenery against which the story unfolds.
- Imperfecto para acciones habitualesA2 — The imperfect's bread-and-butter use: things you used to do in the past, things you would do on a regular basis, patterns and routines that repeated themselves. If English would say 'used to' or habitual 'would', Spanish uses the imperfect.
- Imperfecto de ser: era, eras, eraA2 — The imperfect of ser — era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran — one of only three irregular imperfects in Spanish, with the accent only on éramos, and the workhorse forms used for past identity, age, time, and description.
- Imperfecto de ir: iba, ibas, ibaA2 — The imperfect of ir — iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban — with the accent only on íbamos, the unaccented peninsular vosotros ibais, and the iba a + infinitivo construction for past intention or unrealized plans.