1. Habitual or continuous action in the past.
The imperfect indicates that an action took place during a non-specified amount of time (impossible or irrelevant to determine when the action began or ended) or was repeated an indefinite number of times (impossible or irrelevant to determine the exact time or number of times it occurred).
Antes yo hablaba mucho con mis padres, ahora casi nunca hablo con ellos.Cuando era nina, yo jugaba mucho con munecas.
2. Descriptions
When describing people, things, circumstances (like the weather, the ambience, etc.) we also use the imperfect.
Esa noche hacia mucho frio y tenia mucho miedo.
3. Clock time and age in the past
When referring to the time of day or one’s age in the past, always use the imperfect. There are only two verbs involved here: ser (for clock time) and tener (for age). Yo tenia diez anos cuando conocia a juan.
4. Indirect discourse
To report what someone else said (so after verbs like decir, escribir, avisar, anunciar, etc in the oreterit) we use the imperfect.
Que te dijo Lola? Me dijo que venia.
Les escribiste? Si, les escribi que viajaba
Key word and phrases
Certain words or phrases, when used to describe frequency of a past action, imply repetitive, uncounted occurrences of that action and make you will use the imperfect tense.
| A menudo | often | Nunca | Never |
| A veces | sometimes | Por un rato | for a while |
| Cada dia/ ano, etc. | every day/ year, etc. | Siempre | always |
| Con frecuencia | frequently; often | Tantas veces | so many times |
| Cuando | whenever | Toda la vida | all one’s life |
| De vez en cuando | from time to time | Todo el tiempo | all the time |
| Muchas veces | many times | Varias veces | various times |