the imperfect
The imperfect is the tense of habitual or repeated action in the past. The tense is also used for general descriptions of people or the countryside. The tense is formed by adding to the stem the following endings:
| ar verbs | er and ir verbs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | -aba | -ía |
| 2nd singular | -abas | -ías |
| 3rd singular | -aba | -ía |
| 1st plural | -ábamos | -íamos |
| 2nd plural | -abais | -íais |
| 3rd plural | -aban | --ían |
The imperfect hablaba means I spoke, I used to speak, or I was speaking. Since the first and third persons singular are identical it may be necessary for the sake of clarity to use the pronoun.
