Unit 65 Guidebook: talk about your childhood, use the past tense

KEY PHRASES

Talk about your childhood

De niño, yo montaba mucho mi bicicleta.
As a child, I used to ride my bicycle a lot.
Tú montabas tu bicicleta y yo montaba mi caballo.
You used to ride your bicycle and I used to ride my horse.
¿Y tú, Rodrigo, a qué jugabas de niño?
And you, Rodrigo, what did you use to play as a child?
Tú vivías cerca de un bosque grande.
You used to live close to a big forest.
Claudia, ¡tú no estudiabas nunca!
Claudia, you never used to study!
Sí, yo era una niña un poco perezosa.
I was a somewhat lazy child.
TIP

Yo jugaba con mis amigas

We've already seen one way to talk about the past in Spanish: the preterite. ​

Yo bebí mucho café esta mañana.​
I drank a lot of coffee this morning.​

However, if you want to say what you always did or what you used to do, verbs get put into a form called imperfect. This form takes a different set of endings. Here are the endings for verbs that end in ‑ar:

subject verb (jugar)
yo jugaba
tú jugabas

And here are the endings for ‑er and ‑ir verbs. Pay close attention to the accent marks!

subject verb (comer)
yo comía
tú comías
subject verb (vivir)
yo vivía
tú vivías
Cuando era niña, yo siempre jugaba con mis muñecas.​
When I was a girl, I always played with my dolls.​
Tú comías con tu familia todos los domingos.​
You used to eat with your family every Sunday.​
TIP

Let’s talk about the preterite tense!

Verbs that end in ‑car, ‑gar, or ‑zar have a spelling change in the yo form. ​

Yo llego, yo llegué.​

Some common verbs are irregular in many forms!​

subject verb (ser / ir)
yo fui
tú fuiste
él / ella / usted fue
nosotros / nosotras fuimos
ellos / ellas / ustedes fueron