One of the two simple past tenses in Spanish is the imperfect. Regular verbs follow this pattern:
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The preterite for regular verbs is formed in the following manner:

	-ar verbs
	hablar:	hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablábais, hablaban
	-er/-ir verbs
	querer:	quería, querías, quería, queríamos, queríais, querían

Since the first and third person singular forms are identical, it is necessary to use the subject pronoun unless the context makes the subject clear. There is no stem change or irregular yo forms in any verb. There are only three verbs that are irregular in the Spanish imperfect:

	ser:	era, eras, era, éramos, érais, eran
	ir:	iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban
	ver:	veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían

The imperfect tense is used to describe actions or situations that were incomplete or in progress at the point of time in the past that is being described. It is also used for ongoing conditions and repeated occurrences in the past. Let's look at some examples:

	Yo siempre andaba en bicicleta cuando era joven.	I always used to ride bike when I was young.
	Eran las nueve de la mañana.	It was nine in the morning.
	Visitábamos mi abuela cada verano.	We would visit my grandmother every summer.
	Mi primer carro no tenía radio y no se podía manejarlo más rápido que 50 millas por hora.	My first car didn't have a radio and you couldn't drive it faster than 50 miles an hour.
	Hace 100 años todavía no existía el carro, la computadora, ni la radio.	One hundred years ago the car, computer and the radio didn't exist yet.