📖LearnModule 4 · Lesson 13 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, completedUnit 3 · El imperfecto — the way things were
Scene and event — the two pasts together
Module 4 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, completed), lesson 13 of 30: The imperfecto sets the scene; the pretérito fires the event: Hacía buen tiempo. 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
de repente
suddenly
deh rreh-PEHN-teh
yo jugaba en el parque
I was playing in the park
yoh hoo-GAH-bah ehn ehl PAR-keh
yo vi un perro pequeño
I saw a little dog
yoh bee oon PEH-rroh peh-KEH-nyoh
llovía
it was raining
yoh-BEE-ah
era de noche
it was nighttime
EH-rah deh NOH-cheh
yo estaba en casa
I was at home (imperfecto)
yoh ehs-TAH-bah ehn KAH-sah
yo iba a la escuela
I used to go to school
yoh EE-bah ah lah ehs-KWEH-lah
mientras
while
MYEHN-trahs
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
The imperfecto sets the scene; the pretérito fires the event: Hacía buen tiempo. Yo jugaba en el parque. De repente, vi un perro pequeño.
Y también · And also
Scene verbs (was, had, was doing) go imperfecto; one-time actions (saw, took, went) go pretérito. Estar and ir join the scene: estaba en casa, iba a la escuela. Module 5 drills this contrast to mastery.
Ojo · Watch out
de repente (suddenly) is a signal: what follows it is an event, in the pretérito. mientras (while) signals the scene, in the imperfecto.
ir, imperfecto — the table
yo iba · tú ibas · él/ella/usted iba · nosotros íbamos · ustedes iban · ellos/ellas iban
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with de repente.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out ir, 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.