The imperfect continuous tense
The imperfect continuous is used to say what was happening or what you were doing at a particular time. For example:
- Estaba escuchando música (I was listening to music).
- Mi hermano estaba trabajando (My brother was working).
Like the present continuous tense, the imperfect continuous tense is composed of two parts:
- The correct form of the verbA 'doing' word; a word expressing action. 'Walk', 'talk', 'come', 'go', 'eat' and 'sleep' are all verbs.estar in the imperfect tense.
- The present participle/gerundThe equivalent of the English verb form which ends in -ing, eg jumping, singing, working. (which is also called the gerundIn English, the gerund is a verb form ending in -ing eg. running, walking. In Spanish, the gerund never changes its ending to agree, and usually ends in -ando or -iendo.).
| imperfect tense of estar | |
| (yo) | estaba |
| (tú) | estabas |
| (él/ella/usted) | estaba |
| (nosotros) | estábamos |
| (vosotros) | estabais |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) | estaban |
| (yo) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estaba |
| (tú) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estabas |
| (él/ella/usted) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estaba |
| (nosotros) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estábamos |
| (vosotros) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estabais |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) | |
| imperfect tense of estar | estaban |
+ present participle/gerund (hablando, estudiando, escuchando música, etc.)
The gerund is the equivalent of the English verb form, which ends in -ing, eg jumping, singing, working. To form the present participle, remove the -ar, -er or -ir from the infinitiveThe form of the verb that has not been conjugated and is usually translated with 'to' in English, for example 'to play'. and add these endings:
-ar verbs → -ando
-er verbs → -iendo
-ir verbs → -iendo
A small number of verbs (including some stem-changing verbs) have irregularSomething that does not follow regular patterns and may have a different form. present participles, eg leer (to read) → leyendo (reading), dormir (to sleep) → durmiendo (sleeping).
Question
Translate these sentences into English.
- Los niños estaban bailando en la fiesta de cumpleaños.
- La camarera estaba sirviendo la comida.
- ¿Qué estabas haciendo?
- Mi hermano y yo estábamos durmiendo cuando mis padres volvieron.
- El estudiante estaba leyendo el libro antes de la clase.
- The children were dancing at the birthday party.
- The waitress was serving the food.
- What were you doing?
- My brother and I were sleeping when my parents returned.
- The student was reading the book before the class.
