Cuando Era Pequeño - Imperfecto and Storytelling

What you'll learn

• The pretérito imperfecto — hablaba, comía, vivía — and its only three irregulars: era, iba, veía
• Describing how things used to be: a childhood, an old neighbourhood, a Sunday routine
• Choosing imperfecto or indefinido — scene versus event, background versus action
• Combining both tenses in one story with mientras and de repente

Why it matters

Module 9 gave you the events of a story. This one gives you the scenery — the rain that was falling, the friend who was waiting. Indefinido without imperfecto sounds like a police report; imperfecto without indefinido sounds like a wistful photograph. Mix them and you sound like someone telling a story over wine.

The imperfecto is also the friendliest tense in Spanish: three irregular verbs, and endings that never surprise you. Every -er and -ir form ends in -ía, every -ar form in -aba.

Before you start

Module 9 — the pretérito indefinido and its irregulars, plus narrative connectors.