Imperfect AR Verbs Spanish Verb Conjugation
Bienvenido, in the last lesson, you learned the theory of how “Back” verbs work in the Spanish language. Now let’s learn the endings for “ar” Back verbs.
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Now learn the following “ar” Back verbs. Don't forget to use the flashcards and Lingo Dingo review games above!
| Yo | aba |
nosotros Notice the accent on the “a” |
ábamos |
| tú | abas | vosotros (used only in Spain) (Tú Plural) | abais |
| Él | aba | ellos | aban |
| Ella | ellas | ||
| usted (Ud.) | ustedes (uds.) |
Let’s review those again.
aba - abas - aba - ábamos - abais - aban
Now let’s put the endings on the verb “hablar”. Remember, “hablar” means “to speak or talk”.
| The “yo form” would be “hablaba”. Remember, that means, “I was speaking”, “I used to speak”, or “I spoke every week” or “on Thursdays”. Since “every week” represents an indefinite period of time without a specific beginning or ending, we use the imperfect or “back tense”. For now, for the charts in this lesson, we’ll just use “was” as in “I was speaking”. | (Yo) hablaba | We were speaking | (Nosotros) hablábamos Remember the accent on the “a” before the “b”. |
| Juan or María, You were speaking (remember, if I’m on a first-name basis with someone like Juan or María, I will use “tú” instead of “Ud.”. | (Tú) hablabas | (tú plural or Vosotros – used only in Spain) | (Vosotros) hablabais |
| He was speaking She was speaking and Dr. Garcia, you were speaking |
(El) hablaba (Ella) hablaba (Ud.) hablaba |
They were speaking They (feminine) were speaking All of were speaking |
(Ellos) hablaron (Ellas) hablaron (Uds.) hablaron |
Remember, Ud. hablaba means,
“You were speaking”
“You used to speak”
Or
“You spoke sometimes” or “You spoke” using another non-specific period of time without a beginning or ending like “always”, or “every week”.
| yo | nosotros |
| tú | vosotros |
| él, ella, Ud. | ellos, ellas, Uds. |
Now, you may have noticed that the endings for “Yo” and “él, ella, Ud.” are the same. That’s not a mistake, they are the same. It’s similar to English where “I was” is the same as “He was” or “she was”. Remember that Spanish speakers like to leave off the pronouns. However, you can always add them anytime you want or need to clarify whom you’re talking about. Just remember, native speakers often leave them off.
Now let’s try a few of these using the chart on the screen and the verb “mirar”.
| I was watching / (yo mir(ar) | Miraba |
| You used to watching / (tú mir(ar) | Mirabas |
| He watched (sometimes) / (él mir(ar) | Miraba |
| She was watching / (ella mir(ar) | Miraba |
| You used to watch / (Ud. mir(ar) | Miraba |
| We watched (every week)/ (Nosotros mir(ar) | Mirábamos |
| They (m.) were watching / (ellos mir(ar) | Miraban |
| They (f.) used to watch / (ellas mir(ar) | Miraban |
| All of you watched (every night) / (Uds. mir(ar) | Miraban |
Remember, that the ellos form of “miraban” means:
“They were watching”
“They used to watch”
“They watched sometimes”
“on Thursdays”
Or “every once in a while”
Remember, the back or imperfect tense represents an indefinite period of time without a specific starting or ending point.
Now, since repetition is the name of the game in learning a language, let’s repeat the endings again.
aba - abas - aba - ábamos - abais - aban
Now we’ll practice with a few different verbs. Are you ready?
| I used to dance | (Yo) bailaba |
| You were resting – using “tú” | (Tú) descansabas |
| He studied every Monday | (Él) estudiaba cada lunes |
| She used to call | (Ella) llamaba |
| You were traveling to the beach… | (Ud.) viajaba a la playa… |
| We used to visit… | (Nosotros) visitábamos |
| They drove every week | (Ellos) manejaban |
| All of you were practicing | (Uds.) practicaban |
Spanish Review
| I was answering | contestaba |
| (Marta) You used to arrive… | llegabas |
| He asked (sometimes) | preguntaba |
| She was buying | compraba |
| (Sra. García) You used call | llamaba |
| We carried it (on Thursdays) | lo llevábamos |
| They were changing | cambiaban |
| All of you used to clean | limpiaban |
| I conversed (every day) | conversaba |
| (Pepe) You were cooking | cocinaba |
| He used to dance | bailaba |
| She delivered (daily) | entregaba |
| (Sr. Mendes) You were drawing | dibujaba |
| We used to work | trabajábamos |
| They ate breakfast (almost every day) | desayunaban |
| All of you were eating dinner | cenaban |
| I used to explain it | lo explicaba |
| (Juana) You fixed it (every week) | lo arreglaba |
| He was finishing it | lo terminaba |
| She used to go down | bajaba |
| (Sra. Álvarez) You were helping | ayudaba |
| We used to hit it | lo pegábamos |
| They always invited them | siempre los invitaban |
| All of you were jumping | saltaban |
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