Spanish has two main past tenses: the preterite (comí, fui) for completed, bounded events, and the imperfect (comía, iba) for everything else. The imperfect's single largest job is to describe habits and routines in the past — actions that happened over and over again, without a defined endpoint. If you'd say "used to," "would" (in the habitual sense), or even an English simple past that implies regularity, the Spanish equivalent is almost always the imperfect.
This is the use you reach for when telling someone what life was like in another era of your life: the year you lived in Bilbao, the summers at your grandmother's village, what your father did every morning before work. The imperfect treats those actions as a continuous backdrop rather than a series of individual events.
The core idea: unbounded repetition
The preterite frames an action as a single completed event with a beginning and an end. The imperfect frames it as something that recurred without saying when it started or stopped. Compare:
Ayer comí pintxos en un bar de Bilbao.
Yesterday I had pintxos at a bar in Bilbao. (one specific occasion)
Cuando vivía en Bilbao, comía pintxos todos los viernes.
When I lived in Bilbao, I used to have pintxos every Friday. (recurring habit)
Same verb (comer), same speaker, same action — but the imperfect comía signals a recurring pattern over an unspecified stretch of time, while the preterite comí signals a specific bounded event. English uses "had pintxos" for both and lets the time expression (ayer vs todos los viernes) carry the difference; Spanish bakes the distinction into the verb itself.
The trigger words
A small set of adverbs and time expressions reliably trigger the imperfect because they explicitly mark habitual repetition. When you see these, the verb almost always wants to be imperfect:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| siempre | always |
| nunca / jamás | never |
| a menudo | often |
| a veces | sometimes |
| casi siempre / casi nunca | almost always / almost never |
| normalmente / generalmente | normally / generally |
| todos los días / lunes / años | every day / Monday / year |
| los lunes / los fines de semana | on Mondays / on weekends |
| cada mañana / cada verano | every morning / every summer |
| de pequeño / de joven / de niño | as a kid / when young / as a child |
| en aquella época | in those days |
| antes | before (in the past, contrasted with now) |
These are not absolute rules — siempre can appear with the preterite in a bounded context (siempre estuvo de mi lado durante el juicio, "he was always on my side during the trial," where durante el juicio bounds the period). But as a starting heuristic, every adverb on this list tips the scales heavily toward the imperfect.
De pequeño, jugaba al fútbol en el patio todos los recreos.
As a kid, I used to play football in the schoolyard every break.
Mi abuela siempre me daba un caramelo cuando iba a visitarla.
My grandma would always give me a sweet whenever I visited her.
Los domingos íbamos a casa de mis tíos a comer paella.
On Sundays we would go to my aunt and uncle's house to eat paella.
En aquella época nadie tenía móvil; nos llamábamos por el fijo.
In those days nobody had a mobile; we used to call each other on the landline.
"Used to" and habitual "would" in English
English has two main constructions for past habits, and both map cleanly onto the Spanish imperfect:
- "used to" + base verb: I used to live in Madrid → Vivía en Madrid
- habitual "would" + base verb: Every summer we would go to the beach → Todos los veranos íbamos a la playa
The trap is that English "would" has two completely different meanings: a conditional ("If I had money, I would buy it" → condicional: compraría) and a habitual past ("Every summer we would go" → imperfecto: íbamos). The two share the surface word "would" but require different Spanish tenses. The test: if you can rephrase "would" as "used to" without changing the meaning, it's habitual — use the imperfect.
Mi padre se levantaba a las seis y leía el periódico en la cocina.
My dad would get up at six and read the paper in the kitchen.
Cuando estudiaba en la universidad, vivía con tres compañeros en un piso del centro.
When I was at university, I used to live with three flatmates in a flat in the centre.
This is the most common interference error from English: students reach for haría or vivía when they really want a habitual past, and end up sounding either tentative (the conditional reading) or just non-native. The fix is the same every time: habitual "would" = imperfect.
Even today's habits stay in the imperfect
Peninsular Spanish has a quirk that catches Latin-America-trained learners off guard. In Spain, the present perfect (he comido) often replaces the preterite for events that happened today (Hoy he comido tarde, "Today I ate late"). But this hodiernal rule applies only to bounded events, not to habits — even habits that fall within today. A habit, by its nature, isn't bounded in the way a single event is. So:
Esta semana iba a clase todos los días, pero hoy no he ido porque estoy malo.
This week I was going to class every day, but today I didn't go because I'm ill.
The first verb (iba) describes a habit-within-this-week, so it's imperfect. The second (he ido) is a single bounded event that happened today, so it's the peninsular present perfect. Same week, two different tenses, no conflict.
Antes salíamos a cenar todos los viernes; ahora nos hemos vuelto más caseros.
We used to go out for dinner every Friday; now we've become more home-bodies.
That sentence is peninsular-typical: salíamos (imperfect for the past habit) and nos hemos vuelto (present perfect for the relevant-now change of state). In Latin America the second clause would more likely be nos volvimos, with the preterite.
The "extended period" reading
Habitual imperfect blurs into a closely related use: describing states or activities that lasted for an extended period in the past. The line between "habit" and "extended state" is blurry, and both go in the imperfect.
En 2015 trabajaba en una agencia de publicidad en Gran Vía.
In 2015 I was working at an advertising agency on Gran Vía.
Durante años, mi hermano coleccionaba sellos de todos los países.
For years, my brother used to collect stamps from every country.
Both trabajaba and coleccionaba describe activities that span a period without specifying when they began or ended. The first could be interpreted as "I was working there throughout 2015" (extended state) or "every day in 2015 I went to work there" (habit) — and Spanish doesn't make you choose. The imperfect covers both readings simultaneously.
How to recognise the imperfect at speed
If you can imagine the action being interrupted, paused, and resumed without ending — it's imperfect. If it has a clear "start, do, finish" shape — it's preterite.
- Vivía en Sevilla. — Picture me living there. Could be paused for a holiday, then resumed. Imperfect.
- Viví en Sevilla dos años. — There's a defined duration. Two years from one date to another. Preterite.
The difference is not the length of time. It's whether the speaker is presenting the action as bounded (preterite) or as an ongoing pattern with fuzzy edges (imperfect). The same situation can be framed either way:
Estudié en Salamanca el año pasado.
I studied in Salamanca last year. (the whole year, as a completed unit)
Estudiaba en Salamanca cuando conocí a Sara.
I was studying in Salamanca when I met Sara. (an ongoing situation, with another event landing inside it)
The first treats the studying as a closed package; the second treats it as the open backdrop against which something else happened.
Vosotros and habitual narratives
Peninsular Spanish leans on the vosotros form heavily in everyday past-habit conversation — particularly when reminiscing with friends or family. The imperfect vosotros endings are -abais (for -ar verbs) and -íais (for -er/-ir verbs):
¿Vosotros también jugabais al pilla-pilla en el patio del cole?
Did you guys also used to play tag in the schoolyard?
Antes vivíais en Móstoles, ¿no? ¿Cómo era el barrio?
You guys used to live in Móstoles, right? What was the neighbourhood like?
Cuando ibais de camping, ¿llevabais también tienda o dormíais en el coche?
When you guys went camping, did you bring a tent too, or did you sleep in the car?
In Latin America the same questions would use ustedes (jugaban, vivían, iban). In Spain, vosotros signals informal address among peers and is the default in conversation.
Common mistakes
❌ Cuando era pequeño, jugué al fútbol todos los días.
Wrong: a daily habit needs imperfect (*jugaba*), not preterite (*jugué*). *Jugué todos los días* would only work if the period itself is bounded — e.g., 'I played every day during the World Cup'.
✅ Cuando era pequeño, jugaba al fútbol todos los días.
Correct: When I was little, I used to play football every day.
❌ Mi padre se levantaría a las seis para ir a trabajar.
Wrong: *se levantaría* is conditional ('he would get up if...'). The English habitual 'would' is the imperfect *se levantaba*.
✅ Mi padre se levantaba a las seis para ir a trabajar.
Correct: My dad would get up at six to go to work.
❌ Nunca comí carne cuando estuve vegetariano.
Wrong: a habit over a period needs imperfect — *no comía carne cuando era vegetariano*. The preterite frames it as a single completed event.
✅ Nunca comía carne cuando era vegetariano.
Correct: I never used to eat meat when I was a vegetarian.
❌ De niña, mi abuela siempre me cantó canciones antes de dormir.
Wrong: *de niña* + *siempre* are textbook imperfect triggers. *Cantó* makes it a single occasion, which contradicts *siempre*.
✅ De niña, mi abuela siempre me cantaba canciones antes de dormir.
Correct: As a child, my grandmother would always sing me songs before bed.
❌ Antes fumé mucho, pero lo he dejado.
Wrong: a past habit, now abandoned. The imperfect *fumaba* captures the ongoing-then habit; the preterite *fumé* would mean a single completed act.
✅ Antes fumaba mucho, pero lo he dejado.
Correct: I used to smoke a lot, but I've quit.
Key takeaways
- The imperfect is the default tense for past habits and routines — anything you would have called "used to" or habitual "would" in English.
- Trigger words include siempre, nunca, todos los días, los lunes, normalmente, de pequeño, antes, en aquella época.
- English habitual "would" (= "used to") becomes Spanish imperfect, not conditional. Reserve the conditional for hypothetical "would" ("I would buy it if...").
- Even within today, habits stay in the imperfect — only bounded single events get the peninsular present perfect.
- The line between "habit" and "extended state in the past" is blurred deliberately: the imperfect covers both with one form.
- Peninsular vosotros imperfect endings (jugabais, vivíais, ibais) are the default for informal past-habit talk among friends and family in Spain.
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- Imperfecto para acciones en cursoA2 — The imperfect for actions in progress at a past moment — the Spanish equivalent of English 'I was reading when…'. Most of the time, the simple imperfect alone is enough; the estar + gerundio form exists but is narrower than English speakers expect.
- 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.
- Acción completada vs habitualA2 — The cleanest entry point into preterite-vs-imperfect: a single completed past event takes the preterite, a recurring past habit takes the imperfect. Learn the trigger words that lock in each tense and the English 'used to' rule that solves most cases on autopilot.
- 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: verbos regulares en -er e -irA2 — The regular -er and -ir imperfect — endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían, with the obligatory accent on every form, including the peninsular vosotros comíais and vivíais.