So far, you've talked about the past using tenses for completed actions. Now, let's learn how to talk about the past in a different way: describing how things used to be, what you used to do, or what was happening in the background. This is called the 'pretérito imperfecto', or the imperfect tense.

Think of the imperfect tense as the Spanish equivalent of 'used to do something' or 'was/were doing something'. It's perfect for setting a scene, describing people or places in the past, and talking about habits or routines that are no longer true.

Let's start with regular verbs ending in 'A R'. To form the imperfect, you remove the 'A R' and add a new set of endings. For 'yo', the ending is 'aba'. So, for the verb 'hablar', which means to speak, 'I used to speak' or 'I was speaking' is 'hablaba'.

The endings for regular 'A R' verbs in the imperfect are: 'aba' for 'yo', 'abas' for 'tú', 'aba' for 'él, ella, usted', 'ábamos' for 'nosotros', 'abais' for 'vosotros', and 'aban' for 'ellos, ellas, ustedes'. Notice 'yo' and 'él/ella/usted' have the same form, 'hablaba'.