Talking about the Past Using the Imperfect

The preterite tense speaks about a completed action in the past. Now you'll find out about another past tense, called the imperfect.
You can use the imperfect in the following ways:

• to speak about background events in a story
• to talk about something you used to do as a matter of habit
• to speak about how old someone was
• to say what time is was

The following chart shows you how to form the imperfect of regular verbs:
-ar -er -ir
cantar tener salir
Yo: cantaba tenía salía
Tú: cantabas tenías salías
Usted: cantaba tenía salía
Nosotros: cantábamos teníamos salíamos
Ustedes: cantaban tenían salían

The following example uses imperfect because it describes continuing actions in the past.

Don Miguel tragajaba en el banco todos los días.
Don Miguel worked in the bank every day.

The only verbs that don't follow the pattern are:

ser ir ver
Yo: era iba veía
Tú: eras ibas veías
Usted: era iba veía
Nosotros: éramos íbamos veíamos
Usteded: eran iban veían


Vocabulary note:
You can use dentro de (inside) and fuera de (outside) just as you do in English.
Yo estoy dentro de mi cuarto. I am inside my room.