The Imperfect Tense

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 Edit

Regular -ar verbs

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

Edit

Regular -er and -ir verbs

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