El pretérito imperfecto/ The imperfect

There are different ways to talk about the past in Spanish.  The main two you will use are the imperfect and the preterit.

We use the imperfect to talk about

• things we used to do in the past (but don’t anymore)
• things that were happening at the moment (was + verb + ing)
• a description of something in the past (she was wearing a blue dress)

These are not the only examples, but they are the most common.

I played soccer when I was little	Yo jugaba al fútbol cuando era niña.
I played soccer yesterday.	Yo jugué al fútbol ayer.

Notice that the stem for play, jug, stays the same, but the ending is completely different.  –aba is the imperfect ending, and it means I used to.