Imperfecto

Imperfecto, primarily used in Romance languages like Spanish and Italian, describes a past tense form used to express ongoing, habitual, or incomplete actions in the past. Unlike the preterite, which focuses on completed events, imperfecto paints a picture of the past as a backdrop, highlighting duration, repeated actions, or states of being. It often indicates what was happening, what used to happen, or what things were like in the past, without specifying a definite beginning or end. Think of it as setting the scene rather than telling a single, defined story event. It conveys a sense of description, atmosphere, and continuity rather than a singular action's closure.

Imperfecto meaning with examples

• Cuando era niño, jugaba al fútbol todos los días. (When I was a child, I used to play football every day.) The imperfecto 'jugaba' highlights the habitual action and its duration without specifying exact instances of play.
• El sol brillaba y los pájaros cantaban. (The sun was shining and the birds were singing.) 'Brillaba' and 'cantaban' are imperfecto, creating a descriptive background of the scene, an environment that existed at a moment in time.
• Ella vivía en Madrid en ese momento. (She was living in Madrid at that time.) 'Vivía' uses the imperfecto to show a continued state of being; she lived in Madrid for a time, this may have been ongoing.
• Mientras cenábamos, sonó el teléfono. (While we were eating dinner, the phone rang.) 'Cenábamos' describes an action underway when another, a single event interrupted, adding context to the singular event.