Irregular verbs in the imperfect (era, iba, veía)

The only three irregular verbs

When learning a new tense, you might brace yourself for a long list of irregular verbs. But you're in luck! The Spanish imperfect tense has exactly three irregular verbs: ser, ir, and ver. That's it!

Since the imperfect is used to set the scene and describe how things used to be, these three verbs are essential for talking about history and ancient civilizations. Let's look at them one by one.

Ser (to be)

The verb ser is completely irregular in the imperfect. Notice that there is only one accent mark, which falls on the nosotros/nosotras form.

You will use era and eran all the time to describe what empires, emperors, and gods were like in antiquity.

Ir (to go)

To conjugate ir, you will use the root ib- and add endings that look very similar to the regular -ar endings (-aba). Just like with ser, the only accent mark is on the nosotros/nosotras form.

Use these forms to talk about where people used to go, or to describe what they were "going to" do (ir a + infinitive).

Ver (to see)

The verb ver is barely irregular. Instead of dropping the -er entirely like a regular verb, it keeps the e and then adds the standard -ía endings.

Because it uses the standard -er endings, every single form of ver in the imperfect has an accent mark over the í.

Now you are ready to combine all three irregular verbs to describe ancient worlds!