The Spanish imperfect subjunctive tense is used to express uncertainty about the past. You can use it to describe things that you think happened, you hoped happened or believe happened.
This imperfect subjunctive tense has two forms to conjugate for each personal pronoun. In Latin American use, for the -AR verbs you keep the infinitive and adds an ending. For the -IR and -ER endings you replace them with "ier". So for example, "compartir" becomes "compartier + ending" and "comer" becomes "comier + ending".
The use in Spain involves dropping the -ar, -ir or -er and adding an ending.
| Quer铆a que mi hija me escribiera cada d铆a. | I would like my daughter to write every day. |
| Esta ma帽ana me despert茅 muy tarde porque no hab铆a dormido bien la noche anterior. | This morning I woke up late because I was not able to sleep well last night. |
The following charts show the verb 鈥渆ndings鈥� for all regular verbs in the Imperfect Subjunctive Tense.
Remember: these verb charts are only a tool to use while one is learning the language. In other words, one must eventually forget the verb chart and it must become second nature.
NOTE: The following endings are added to the infinitive. Do not drop the original endings.
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (hablar) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -a | hablara |
| Tu | -as | hablaras |
| El/Ella | -a | hablara |
| Nosotros | -amos | hablaramos |
| Vosotros | -ais | hablarais |
| Ellos/Ellas | -an | hablaran |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (hablar) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -ase | hablase |
| Tu | -ases | hablases |
| El/Ella | -ase | hablase |
| Nosotros | -谩蝉别尘辞蝉 | 丑补产濒谩蝉别尘辞蝉 |
| Vosotros | -aseis | hablaseis |
| Ellos/Ellas | -asen | hablasen |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (compartir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iera | compartiera |
| Tu | -ieras | compartieras |
| El/Ella | -ieraa | compartiera |
| Nosotros | -颈茅谤补尘辞蝉 | 肠辞尘辫补谤迟颈茅谤补尘辞蝉 |
| Vosotros | -ierais | compartierais |
| Ellos/Ellas | -ieran | compartieran |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (compartir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iese | compartiese |
| Tu | -ieses | compartieses |
| El/Ella | -iese | compartiese |
| Nosotros | -颈茅蝉别尘辞蝉 | 肠辞尘辫补谤迟颈茅蝉别尘辞蝉 |
| Vosotros | -ieseis | compartieseis |
| Ellos/Ellas | -iesen | compartiesen |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (comer) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iera | comiera |
| Tu | -ieras | comieras |
| El/Ella | -ieraa | comiera |
| Nosotros | -颈茅谤补尘辞蝉 | 肠辞尘颈茅谤补尘辞蝉 |
| Vosotros | -ierais | comierais |
| Ellos/Ellas | -ieran | comieran |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (comer) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iese | comiese |
| Tu | -ieses | comieses |
| El/Ella | -iese | comiese |
| Nosotros | -颈茅蝉别尘辞蝉 | 肠辞尘颈茅蝉别尘辞蝉 |
| Vosotros | -ieseis | comieseis |
| Ellos/Ellas | -iesen | comiesen |
The ending identifies:
1) the tense - when the action of the verb is taking place; and
2) the person - who is performing the action of the verb.