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: