Practice using the imperfect tense
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| Do you know how to talk about what someone or something was like in the past in Spanish? |
| Welcome to Three Step Spanish Practice by SpanishPod101.com. In this lesson, you will practice using the imperfect tense to talk about how someone or something was, where they were, or what they had in the past. |
| Let's look at the main dialogue. |
| Two people are having a conversation. |
| Era muy curioso y hablaba sin parar sobre deportes. |
| "He was very curious and talked nonstop about sports." |
| Se nota que siempre le gustó mantenerse activo. |
| "You can tell he always liked to stay active." |
| Era, hablaba |
| We use the imperfect tense in Spanish to talk about how someone or something was in the past, to describe repeated actions, or to give background information in a story. |
| Let's quickly review how the imperfect is formed for three common verbs: |
| ser (to be): |
| era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran |
| estar (to be – physical/emotional state): |
| estaba, estabas, estaba, estábamos, estabais, estaban |
| tener (to have): |
| tenía, tenías, tenía, teníamos, teníais, tenían |
| In the dialogue, we saw: |
| era – from ser, meaning "he was" |
| hablaba – from hablar, meaning "he used to talk" |
| In this lesson, we'll keep practicing how to describe people, feelings, and habits in the past using these common verbs in the imperfect. |
| Let's get started. |
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