When to Use the Imperfect

Knowing how to conjugate the imperfect is only half the battle. The real challenge is knowing when to use it — especially since English does not always make the distinction between preterite and imperfect clear. This lesson provides detailed guidelines and plenty of examples.

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The Core Idea

Think of the imperfect as a wide-angle lens or an unframed photograph. It captures scenes, states, and processes without boundaries:

• No clear start time
• No clear end time
• No sense of completion

The preterite, by contrast, is a snapshot — a single, completed event with clear edges.

Imperfect = the background, the scenery, the ongoing. Preterite = the foreground, the event, the completed.

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Use 1: Habitual Actions ("Used to...")

If something happened repeatedly or routinely in the past, use the imperfect:

Spanish	English
Jugaba al fútbol los sábados.	I used to play football on Saturdays.
Comíamos juntos cada domingo.	We used to eat together every Sunday.
Siempre llegaba tarde.	He always used to arrive late.
De niña, leía cuentos antes de dormir.	As a girl, I used to read stories before sleeping.
Mis padres trabajaban mucho.	My parents used to work a lot.

Signal words: siempre (always), a menudo (often), cada día (every day), todos los veranos (every summer), frecuentemente (frequently), normalmente (normally), de niño/a (as a child).

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Use 2: Descriptions in the Past

Use the imperfect to describe what things looked like, felt like, or were like in the past:

Physical descriptions

• La casa era grande y blanca. — The house was big and white.
• El cielo estaba nublado. — The sky was cloudy.
• Ella tenía el pelo largo. — She had long hair.
• El jardín olía a flores. — The garden smelled of flowers.

Personality / character

• Mi profesora era muy estricta. — My teacher was very strict.
• Él parecía triste. — He seemed sad.

Setting a scene

• Era un día frío de invierno. Nevaba. Las calles estaban vacías. — It was a cold winter day. It was snowing. The streets were empty.

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Use 3: Ongoing Background Actions

When one action was already happening and another action interrupted it, the ongoing action is in the imperfect:

Ongoing (imperfect)	Interruption (preterite)
Dormía...	...cuando sonó el teléfono.
I was sleeping...	...when the phone rang.
Caminábamos por la calle...	...cuando empezó a llover.
We were walking down the street...	...when it started to rain.
Leía un libro...	...cuando llegaste.
I was reading a book...	...when you arrived.
Cocinaba la cena...	...cuando se fue la luz.
I was cooking dinner...	...when the power went out.

Pattern: imperfect + cuando + preterite

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Use 4: Age and Time

When stating how old someone was or what time it was, use the imperfect:

Age

• Cuando tenía quince años, viajé a España por primera vez. — When I was fifteen, I travelled to Spain for the first time.
• Tenía veinte años cuando empecé la universidad. — I was twenty when I started university.

Time

• Eran las ocho de la mañana. — It was eight in the morning.
• Era medianoche cuando llegamos. — It was midnight when we arrived.

Note: Time always uses ser in the imperfect: era la una (it was one o'clock), eran las tres (it was three o'clock).

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Use 5: Emotional and Physical States

Feelings, emotions, and physical conditions in the past are typically expressed with the imperfect, because they are seen as states rather than events: