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Spanish Verbs: Past Imperfect Tense
PAST IMPERFECT TENSE OF THE VERBS SER & IR
Model Question and Answer: Supply the past imperfect tense form. Q: En ese período ella (ser) muy joven. |
Useful Grammar For This Quiz
There are only two verbs of importance* which are irregular in the past imperfect tense: ser and ir. Although the form of these verbs changes considerably in the past imperfect tense, their endings remain regular. Thus, their conjugation is not difficult to remember.
| See: | ser | |
| See: | ir |
* The verb ver is also irregular in the past imperfect tense, although only slightly so. The letter e is simply added to the stem.
| See: | ver |
Since ver is not widely used in this tense, special consideration is not given to it here; attention, instead, is concentrated on ser and ir. Practice sentences, however, with ver will appear in future exercises.
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Uses of IR A + Infinitive
Model Question and Answer: Supply the past imperfect tense form of IR plus the preposition A. Q: ¿Qué _____ ir a decir tú? |
Note that the past imperfect tense of ir is used together with the preposition a and an infinitive to express an action in the past that was planned but did not occur. It is thus used exactly like its equivalent in English was (or were) going to.
Nosotros íbamos a jugar tenis ayer pero hacía mucho frío.
We (were going to play) tennis yesterday but it was very cold.
Yo iba a llamarla pero no tenía su número de teléfono.
I (was going to call him) but I did not have his telephone number.
