4 Trigger words that signal IMPERFECT Tense PRETERITO IMPERFECTO "USED TO"” Flashcards
Of the main three Spanish past tenses, the Spanish past imperfect can be the most problematic for Spanish students.
This is because the past imperfect tense, aiso known as the PRETÉRITO IMPERFECTO, is used for setting the scene, talking about habitual behaviour in the past, for descriptions of things and people, and in combination with the pretérito indefinido to accurately describe the placement of events.
Notice the arrows for the imperfect tense. These arrows signify that actions that occur in the past imperfect tense don’t have a well defined start and end time.
Typically the English phrase ‘I used to…’ will call for the past imperfect when translated to Spanish.
If you said ‘I used to shop a lot’, then the question would be when did the shopping habit start and when did it stop?
All you know from the statement is that the shopping habit occurred for an undefined timeframe. It could have been a problem that lasted for months, years, or decades. This means that the Spanish past imperfect tense should be used in this context.
The ‘phrase triggers’ below imply an undefined start and end time for a past event, therefore naturally triggering the use of the Spanish past
The other phrase that you could add to the end of almost all of the examples is “ya no” which is ‘now (no/not)’. For example, ‘we used to go to the swimming pool a lot, now we don’t’.
- ALWAYS - SIEMPRE
If you wanted to talk about something that ‘always’ used to happen, you will need to use the past imperfect.
We always used to watch television after dinner.
Siempre veíamos la televisión después de la cena.
Siempre miramos TV después de cenar. (Reverso)
I always used to go to bed early during the week.
Siempre me acostaba temprano entre semana.
Siempre me acostaba temprano durante la semana.
- ALMOST ALWAYS — CASI SIEMPRE
Closely related to the first phrase trigger, this time you are talking about things that happened ‘almost always’.
They almost always arrived late to work.
Ellos casi siempre llegaban tarde al trabajo.
She almost always used to call me when I was busy.
Ella casi siempre me llamaba cuando estaba ocupada.
- EVERYDAY, – EVERY WEEK. – EVERY MONTH,
TODOS LOS DIAS, –TODAS LAS SEMANAS, –TODOS LOS MESES…
This third phrase trigger is again related to the idea of always, and doesn’t give an indication of start and end moments for the action.
I used to do exercise everyday.
Hacía ejercicio todos los días.
My friends and I used to eat dinner every friday night in town.
Mis amigos y yo cenábamos cada viernes por la noche en el centro.
- USUALLY – NORMALMENTE
You could also talk about things you usually used to do.
I usually used to practice my Spanish before lunch.
Normalmente practicaba mi español antes del almuerzo.