Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Spanish (Spain)

### The imperfect tense for -er and -ir verbs

Just like with **-ar** verbs, you can use the imperfect tense to talk about past habits ("used to do") or describe ongoing past situations ("was doing"). 

The best part about regular **-er** and **-ir** verbs in the imperfect is that they share the exact same endings! To conjugate them, drop the **-er** or **-ir** from the infinitive and add the **-ía** endings.

| Pronoun | beber | vivir |
| --- | --- | --- |
| yo | bebía | vivía |
| tú | bebías | vivías |
| él/ella/usted | bebía | vivía |
| nosotros/nosotras | bebíamos | vivíamos |
| vosotros/vosotras | bebíais | vivíais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | bebían | vivían |

Notice that every single form has an accent mark over the **í**. Once again, the **yo** and **él/ella/usted** forms are exactly the same, so you will often rely on context or pronouns to clarify who is doing the action.

### Life in the old days

Because the imperfect describes how things used to be, it is the go-to tense for talking about history and setting the scene in a past century (**el siglo**) or era (**la época**).

{{item:1161227}}

{{item:1161230}}

{{item:1161241}}

### Past habits and routines

You will also use these **-ía** endings to describe the daily routines of people in the past, including kings (**reyes**) and queens (**reinas**). 

{{item:1161233}}

{{item:1161236}}

{{item:1161243}}

You can comfortably mix **-ar** verbs (**-aba**) and **-er**/**-ir** verbs (**-ía**) in the imperfect to describe a bustling scene from the past:

{{item:1161247}}

The imperfect tense for -er and -ir verbs (-ía)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

contraction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular subjects and 'ser' (yo soy, esto es)

Plural nouns and definite articles (los, las)

Plural pronouns and 'ser' (somos, sois, son)

Adjective agreement (-o, -a, -os, -as)

Indefinite articles (un, una, unos, unas)

Simple negation (no)

Yes/no questions

Regular '-ar' verbs (-o, -as, -a...)

Regular '-er' verbs (-o, -es, -e...)

Regular '-ir' verbs (-o, -es, -e...)

Locative adverbs (aquí, allí)

Question words (quién, cómo)

The verb estar (estoy, estás)

The preposition en (en)

Ser vs. estar

The verb tener (tengo, tienes)

Possessive determiners (mi, tu, su)

Origin and possession (de, del)

The verb ir (voy, vas)

Destination (a, al)

The personal 'a' (a)

Stem-changing verbs: e to ie

Stem-changing verbs: o to ue

Irregular first-person verbs

Reflexive verbs (me, te, se)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, dos, tres)

Numbers 11 to 20 (once, doce, trece)

Counting by tens to 100 (treinta, cuarenta, cien)

Compound numbers up to 99 (veintiuno, treinta y uno)

Days of the week (el lunes, el martes)

The family and the personal 'a' (a mi tío, a mi prima)

Months of the year

Telling time (es la, son las)

Verbs of liking (me gusta)

Plural agreement with verbs of liking (gustan)

Degree modifiers (muy, mucho)

Formal address (usted, ustedes)

Direct object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)

The near future (ir a)

Obligation (tener que)

Present continuous (-ando, -iendo)

Affirmative commands (tú, vosotros)

Basic Food and Drink

The Human Body: Head and Arms

The Human Body: Legs and Health

Wardrobe Essentials

Fresh Produce

Meals and Proteins

Public Transport

Hello and goodbye (hola, ¿qué tal?)

Thank you, sorry, OK (gracias, vale)

There is, there are (hay)

My building (la escalera, el ascensor)

Describing people (moreno, rubio, tímido)

Land and sea (el mar, el río, el norte)

Sightseeing (la plaza, la catedral)

Asking the way (cerca, a la derecha, todo recto)

In class (¿puedes repetir?)

Verb + infinitive (quiero comer, sé leer)

What's your name? (me llamo, encantado)

Phone, computer and email

Hundreds and thousands (doscientos, mil)

What do you do? (¿a qué te dedicas?)

Personal details (la edad, la fecha de nacimiento)

Me neither (también, tampoco, ni)

How much is it? (el precio, la vuelta)

What's the weather like? (hace sol, nieva)

Free time (el concierto, el tenis)

At the bar (¿qué vas a tomar?)

The Natural World

Demonstratives (este, ese, aquel)

Prepositions of place (encima de, debajo de)

Prepositional pronouns (para mí, contigo)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primero to décimo)

Adverbs of frequency (a veces, nunca)

Exclamations (¡qué...!)

Indefinite pronouns (algo, alguien)

Indefinite determiners (algún, ningún)

Indirect object pronouns (le, les)

Double object pronouns (me lo, te la)

Double object pronouns (se lo, se la)

Verbs of preference (encantar, interesar)

Impersonal obligation (hay que)

Starting and finishing actions (empezar a, terminar de)

Adjective comparatives (más que, menos que)

Comparatives of equality (tan como)

Noun comparatives (tanto como)

Question	Answer
the century	el siglo
to exist	existir
In that century, the train did not exist.	En ese siglo no existía el tren.
What did they drink in the fifteenth century?	¿Qué bebían en el siglo quince?
the era; the time, the period (back then, this time of year)	la época
In that era, people lived in the country.	En aquella época, la gente vivía en el campo.
In that era, my grandfather did not eat meat.	En esa época, mi abuelo no comía carne.
the king	el rey
The king drank a lot of wine in the palace.	El rey bebía mucho vino en el palacio.
Where did the king of Spain live?	¿Dónde vivía el rey de España?
the queen	la reina
The queen wrote letters in the palace.	La reina escribía cartas en el palacio.
The queens read interesting books.	Las reinas leían libros interesantes.
the war	la guerra
In the war, nobody received the mail.	En la guerra, nadie recibía el correo.
the peace (absence of war) / the peace (calm, tranquility)	la paz
Before the war, we lived in peace.	Antes de la guerra, vivíamos en paz.
the candle	la vela
We used to read with a candle every night.	Nosotros leíamos con una vela todas las noches.
She read the book without glasses.	Ella leía el libro sin gafas.
to sew	coser
They sewed the queen's dresses.	Ellas cosían los vestidos de la reina.
My grandmother sewed the clothes and my grandfather cooked.	Mi abuela cosía la ropa y mi abuelo cocinaba.
The king did not know any doctor.	El rey no conocía a ningún médico.
Why did you hide the bread?	¿Por qué escondías el pan?
Because I was very hungry.	Porque yo tenía mucha hambre.
The king always returned in winter.	El rey siempre volvía en invierno.
In that era, the country lived in peace.	En esa época, el país vivía en paz.
ancient / old, antique	antiguo
In the ancient era, the internet didn't exist.	En la época antigua, internet no existía.
The queen sewed with a candle in the old palace.	La reina cosía con una vela en el palacio antiguo.

Contributors