Past habits and repeated actions
You've already used the imperfect tense to set the scene and describe what things were like in the past. Another major use of the imperfect is to talk about past habits, routines, and repeated actions. Think of it as the English "used to" or "would" do something.
To spot a past habit, look for trigger phrases like siempre (always) or todos los meses (every month). Let's look at some regular -ar verbs like trabajar (to work) and fabricar (to manufacture).
| The artisan always worked in the workshop. | La artesana siempre trabajaba en el taller. |
| The workshop manufactured fifty hats every month. | El taller fabricaba cincuenta sombreros todos los meses. |
Ongoing situations and conditions
The imperfect is also the go-to tense for ongoing situations and conditions in the past, such as what someone's job was, what they owned, or the salary they earned.
Here are some examples with regular -er and -ir verbs like tener (to have) and recibir (to receive). Notice the -ía endings.
| My grandmother had a very hard trade. | Mi abuela tenía un oficio muy duro. |
| The workers received a low salary in the factory. | Los obreros recibían un sueldo bajo en la fábrica. |
And here is an example using the vosotros or vosotras form:
| Did you all work in the workshop or in the factory? | ¿Vosotras trabajabais en el taller o en la fábrica? |
Irregulars: Ser and Ver
There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense: ser (to be), ir (to go), and ver (to see). You'll often use ser to describe the characteristics of a job or industry back then, and ver for things you used to see.
| The manual work was as important as the machine. | El trabajo manual era tan importante como la máquina. |
| We almost never saw the worker in the street. | Casi nunca veíamos a la obrera en la calle. |
Then and now: antes … ahora
To compare how things used to be with how they are now, put antes with the imperfect and ahora with the present:
- Antes vivía en Sevilla; ahora vivo en Madrid.
- Antes trabajaba en una fábrica; ahora trabajo en casa.
Used to: solía + infinitive
Soler works in the imperfect too: solía + infinitive is another way to say what you used to do: De pequeño, *solía ir a la playa en verano. It means the same as the imperfect alone (*iba a la playa), with the habit made explicit.
