The Imperfect Indicative

The imperfect is one of the simplest tenses in Spanish. Indeed, there are only three exceptions: ser, ver and ir. A simple way to remember them is to think of the big dog Cerberus who guards the gate of the underworld. This way you already remember ser and ver, you just need to memorize ir!

The imperfect is formed from the stem to which the following endings are added:
- verbs in -ar: -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban (jugaba...)
- verbs in -er and -ir: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían (comía, venía...)

Irregular Verbs

And here are the three irregular verbs: