Imperfect Indicative or Imperfecto Indicativo

A past tense

This is a past tense. Imperfect gives the impression of incompletion. The Imperfect Indicative expresses an action or a state that was continuous in the past and is not yet completed (or its completion is not yet indicated). This sounds complicated so far but keep reading, as I break it down for you:

The Imperfect Indicative is used to express:

• An action that was going on in the past at the same time as another action, for example: "My brother was eating and my mother was talking ."
• An action that was going on in the past when another action occured, for example: "My aunt was going out when I came in."

• An action that was done as a habit in the past: "When we were in Barcelona, we ate (as in we used to eat) lots of tortillas."

• Also, sometimes in English we say "would" when we are actually talking in the Imperfect, for example: "When we lived in Bilbao, we would go to the beach every day." This actually means: "When we used to live in Bilbao, we used to go to the beach every day."

• A description of a mental, physical or emotional condition in the past:

(mental condition) "I wanted to go the the cinema." *

(emotional condition) " I was sad to see him."

(physical condition) "My wife was beautiful when she was young."

• The time of day in the past: "What time was it ?"

• An indirect quotation in the past: "She said (not imperfect) that she wanted to come around"

To use the Imperfect Indicative you have to know how to form it, so use the chart below to help you: