📖LearnModule 4 · Lesson 11 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, completedUnit 3 · El imperfecto — the way things were
Era, había — the imperfecto arrives
Module 4 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, completed), lesson 11 of 30: Spanish has a second past for how things WERE: the imperfecto. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
era
it was (imperfecto)
EH-rah
había
there was / there were
ah-BEE-ah
yo era
I was (imperfecto)
yoh EH-rah
yo tenía
I had (imperfecto)
yoh teh-NEE-ah
era fantástico
it was fantastic
EH-rah fahn-TAHS-tee-koh
fantástico
fantastic
fahn-TAHS-tee-koh
mucha gente
a lot of people
MOO-chah HEHN-teh
la gente
the people
lah HEHN-teh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Spanish has a second past for how things WERE: the imperfecto. Its stars: era (it was), había (there was / there were), tenía (I had), estaba (I was, somewhere).
Y también · And also
Era fantástico. Había mucha gente. The pretérito tells what happened; the imperfecto paints the scene around it. Ser is irregular here: era, eras, era, éramos, eran. Tener is regular: tenía, tenías, tenía, teníamos, tenían.
Ojo · Watch out
había is one fixed form for singular and plural: había un gato, había tres gatos. Never habían for there were.
ser, imperfecto — the table
yo era · tú eras · él/ella/usted era · nosotros éramos · ustedes eran · ellos/ellas eran
tener, imperfecto — the table
yo tenía · tú tenías · él/ella/usted tenía · nosotros teníamos · ustedes tenían · ellos/ellas tenían
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with era.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out ser, imperfecto and tener, imperfecto in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.