Portuguese/Contents/Imperfect tense regular verbs
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The Imperfect Tense
[edit | edit source]The imperfect Tense is used in Portuguese to express something that was happening at a particular moment in time. For instance, we would NOT use the imperfect for the sentence "I ate an apple" because the action has finished. However, the sentence "I was eating an apple" describes something that was happening at a moment in time.
Let's see how to form the imperfect tense. First, take the "ar", "er" or "ir" off the infinitive (so falar becomes fal, comer becomes com and partir becomes part
Regular -ar verbs
[edit | edit source]| I was speaking | Eu fal | ava |
| You (s,inf) were speaking | Tu fal | avas |
| He was speaking (also ela, você) |
Ele fal | ava |
| We were speaking | Nós fal |
ávamos |
| You (f) were speaking | Vós fal |
áveis |
| They were speaking (also elas, vocês) |
Eles fal | avam |
Regular -er and -ir verbs
[edit | edit source]You only need to learn one conjugation for the 'ir' and 'er' verbs. That means that the verb partir is conjugated exactly like comer in the imperfect tense.
| I was eating | Eu com | ia |
| You (s,inf) were eating | Tu com | ias |
| He was eating (also ela, você) |
Ele com | ia |
| We were eating | Nós com |
íamos |
| You (f) were eating | Vós com |
íeis |
| They were eating (also elas, vocês) |
Eles com | iam |
There! It's that easy.