Use the imperfect tense to talk about repeated or continuous actions in the past. The imperfect is used when the past action doesn’t have a definite beginning and definite end.
The imperfect tenseThe imperfect tense is used to describe things in the past, that used to happen regularly or an incomplete action. is used:
to describe repeated or continuous actions in the past, eg:
Iba a pie todos los días (I walked every day)
to describe what something or someone was like in the past, eg:
Mi escuela primaria era muy grande (my primary school was very big)
to say what people used to do or what things used to be like, eg:
En el pasado jugaba al baloncesto (in the past, I used to play basketball)
The imperfect tense is also used to describe weather in the past. For example:
Hacía sol/calor (It was sunny/hot)
Estaba frío/nublado, etc (It was cold/cloudy, etc)
Nevaba (It was snowing)
Llovía (It was raining)
The imperfect tense is frequently used with phrases that describe how often something used to happen eg, regularmente (regularly), a veces (sometimes), cada día/todos los días (every day), generalmente (usually), etc.
