The Imperfect Tense - Las vacaciones

The imperfect tense is used to refer to __________ events.

• present

• past

• future

We use the imperfect tense to refer to... (tick 3 boxes)

• How things normally are

• What was going on when something else happened

• What is going to happen

• Background description / setting the scene

• What used to happen / how things used to be

To form the imperfect tense, we remove the - AR/-ER/-IR ending from the infinitive verb and add the following endings:

• -AR = -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban

  -ER/-IR = - ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían,

• -AR = -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron

  -ER/-IR = -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron

• -AR = -o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an

  -ER/-IR = -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en

Good news! In the imperfect tense there are only ______ irregular verbs.

• 2

• 3

• 4

The irregular verbs in the imperfect tense are:

• VER (to see), SER (to be), IR (to go)

• SER (to be), IR (to go), TENER (to have)

• IR (to go), SER (to be), ESTAR (to be)

Choose the correct imperfect verb for the translation:

"Every year I visited the coast of Wales"

Todos los años _________ la costa de Gales.

• visitaba

• visito

• visité

Choose the correct imperfect verb for the translation:

"The hotel didn't have a swimming pool"

El hotel no _________ piscina.

• tiene

• tuvo

• tenía

Choose the correct imperfect verb for the translation:

"When I was younger I used to go on holiday with my grandparents."

Cuando era joven _________ de vacaciones con mis abuelos.

• fui

• voy

• iba

Choose the correct imperfect verb for the translation:

"I was swimming in the sea when it started to rain."

____________ en el mar cuando empezó a llover.

• Nadaba

• Nadabas

• Nadábamos

Which tense would you need to translate this sentence to Spanish?

"We always go to Greece with my cousins."

• Present tense

• Preterite tense

• Imperfect tense