LESSON NOTES

Verb Conjugation #22

Imperfect with conditionals

CONTENTS

Vocabulary
Sample sentences
Grammar
Cultural insight

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VOCABULARY

Spanish English Class Gender

ser to be verb

leer to read verb

época epoch, time, age, period noun feminine

ir to go verb

llamar to call verb

manejar to drive, to operate, to manage verb

pensar to think verb

ver to see verb

encontrar to find, to meet with verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Deja de ser tan narcisista. Si tenía más tiempo, leería cada día.

"Stop being such a narcissist." "If I had more time, I would read everyday."

En la época de Cristóbal Colón no había tarjetas Fui al hospital veterinario.

de crédito.
"I went to the animal hospital."
"In the age of Christopher Columbus, there
weren't any credit cards."

Me va bien. Iba a llamarte, pero no tuve tiempo.

"It's going well for me." "I was going to call you, but I didn't have time."

Si manejabas a la playa, te acompañaría. Ellos piensan que nosotros no sabemos sus

planes.
"If you drove to the beach, I would join you."
"They think that we don't know their plans."

No pienses la respuesta demasiado. Pensabas que no te veía, pero lo vi todo.

"Do not think about the answer too much." "You thought that I wasn't watching you, but I
saw it all!"

Se ve bien. ¿has encontrado el cuaderno que buscabas?

"It looks good." "Have you found the notebook you were looking
for?"

GRAMMAR
Today's topic is the the imperfect tense with conditional statements.

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When using the conditional, we are employing the following structure:
{If +(imperfect subjunctive/imperfect indicative) + then + (I/you/he/she/we/they/you all) + would}

Let's look at this example:

"Si tuviera más tiempo, leería cada día" (If I had more time, I would read everyday).

Here, we have two verbs: "tuviera", which is in the "imperfect subjunctive" and "leería", which is in the
"conditional".

*In everyday speech, we often replace the imperfect subjunctive with the imperfect indicative when
making conditional statements. The meaning is roughly the same, although it is more informal: "si tenía
más tiempo, leería cada día" (If I had more time, I would read every day.)

For example, we can say "si manejabas a la playa, te acompañaría" (If you drove to the beach, I would
join you).
Again, we are using the verb "manejar" (to drive) in the imperfect indicative here, which is "manejaba",
and this is replacing "manejara", which is the more proper imperfect subjunctive.

*Note that this substitution of the imperfect indicative for the imperfect subjunctive in conditional
statements is only done when speaking. It is not suitable for written/formal Spanish. We will be covering
the imperfect subjunctive in greater detail in future lessons.

Now, review the table below to see how we conjugate the irregular verbs "ser" (to be), "ver" (to see), and
"ir" (to go) in the imperfect indicative tense:

Persona SER VER IR

yo era veía iba

tú eras veías ibas

él/ella/usted era veía iba

nosotros éramos veíamos íbamos

vosotros erais veíais ibaias

ellos/ellas eran veían iban

ustedes eran veían iban

*Remember that the imperfect tense is an ongoing past tense, so we translate these three verbs in the
imperfect indicative as "used to be", "used to see", and "used to go".
*Note the accent that is placed over the first vowel of the "nosotros" form when conjugating "ser" (to
be) and "ir" (to go).

CULTURAL INSIGHT

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The imperfect indicative is used to talk about ongoing past actions or states of being that do not have
precise beginnings or ends. Although it is not extremely common, the imperfect indicative can be used
when speaking to replace the imperfect subjunctive mood when making conditional statements. Think
of a conditional statement as an expression of that which "would" happen "if" certain conditions were
to be fulfilled. That is to say, "if" something happens, "then" something else "would happen. For
example: "If I had money, I would buy a car." In an informal setting, we could say this in Spanish as
follows: "Si tenía dinero, compraría un carro." Remember that we are substituting the indicative form of
the imperfect for the subjunctive in this case. We will discuss the more common use of the imperfect
subjunctive mood in other lessons.

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