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.
| Quería que mi hija me escribiera cada día. | I would like my daughter to write every day. |
| Esta mañana me desperté muy tarde porque no había 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 “endings” 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 | -ásemos | hablásemos |
| Vosotros | -aseis | hablaseis |
| Ellos/Ellas | -asen | hablasen |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (compartir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iera | compartiera |
| Tu | -ieras | compartieras |
| El/Ella | -ieraa | compartiera |
| Nosotros | -iéramos | compartiéramos |
| Vosotros | -ierais | compartierais |
| Ellos/Ellas | -ieran | compartieran |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (compartir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iese | compartiese |
| Tu | -ieses | compartieses |
| El/Ella | -iese | compartiese |
| Nosotros | -iésemos | compartiésemos |
| Vosotros | -ieseis | compartieseis |
| Ellos/Ellas | -iesen | compartiesen |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (comer) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iera | comiera |
| Tu | -ieras | comieras |
| El/Ella | -ieraa | comiera |
| Nosotros | -iéramos | comiéramos |
| Vosotros | -ierais | comierais |
| Ellos/Ellas | -ieran | comieran |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (comer) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -iese | comiese |
| Tu | -ieses | comieses |
| El/Ella | -iese | comiese |
| Nosotros | -iésemos | comiésemos |
| 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.