Bienvenido, in the last lesson, you learned the theory of how “Back” verbs work in the Spanish language. Now let’s learn the endings for “ar” Back verbs.

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Now learn the following “ar” Back verbs. Don't forget to use the flashcards and Lingo Dingo review games above!

Yo   aba   nosotros
Notice the accent on the “a”   ábamos  
tú   abas   vosotros (used only in Spain) (Tú Plural)   abais  
Él   aba   ellos   aban  
Ella     ellas    
usted (Ud.)     ustedes (uds.)    

Let’s review those again.

aba - abas - aba - ábamos - abais - aban

Now let’s put the endings on the verb “hablar”. Remember, “hablar” means “to speak or talk”.

The “yo form” would be “hablaba”. Remember, that means, “I was speaking”, “I used to speak”, or “I spoke every week” or “on Thursdays”. Since “every week” represents an indefinite period of time without a specific beginning or ending, we use the imperfect or “back tense”. For now, for the charts in this lesson, we’ll just use “was” as in “I was speaking”.   (Yo) hablaba   We were speaking   (Nosotros) hablábamos
Remember the accent on the “a” before the “b”.  
Juan or María, You were speaking (remember, if I’m on a first-name basis with someone like Juan or María, I will use “tú” instead of “Ud.”.   (Tú) hablabas   (tú plural or Vosotros – used only in Spain)   (Vosotros) hablabais  
He was speaking
She was speaking
and
Dr. Garcia, you were speaking   (El) hablaba
(Ella) hablaba (Ud.) hablaba   They were speaking
They (feminine) were speaking
All of were speaking   (Ellos) hablaron
(Ellas) hablaron (Uds.) hablaron  

Remember, Ud. hablaba means,

“You were speaking”
“You used to speak”
Or
“You spoke sometimes” or “You spoke” using another non-specific period of time without a beginning or ending like “always”, or “every week”.

yo   nosotros  
tú   vosotros  
él, ella, Ud.   ellos, ellas, Uds.  

Now, you may have noticed that the endings for “Yo” and “él, ella, Ud.” are the same. That’s not a mistake, they are the same. It’s similar to English where “I was” is the same as “He was” or “she was”. Remember that Spanish speakers like to leave off the pronouns. However, you can always add them anytime you want or need to clarify whom you’re talking about. Just remember, native speakers often leave them off.

Now let’s try a few of these using the chart on the screen and the verb “mirar”.

I was watching / (yo mir(ar)   Miraba  
You used to watching / (tú mir(ar)   Mirabas  
He watched (sometimes) / (él mir(ar)   Miraba  
She was watching / (ella mir(ar)   Miraba  
You used to watch / (Ud. mir(ar)   Miraba  
We watched (every week)/ (Nosotros mir(ar)   Mirábamos  
They (m.) were watching / (ellos mir(ar)   Miraban  
They (f.) used to  watch / (ellas mir(ar)   Miraban  
All of you watched (every night) / (Uds. mir(ar)   Miraban  

Remember, that the ellos form of “miraban” means:
“They were watching”
“They used to watch”
“They watched sometimes”
“on Thursdays”
Or “every once in a while”

Remember, the back or imperfect tense represents an indefinite period of time without a specific starting or ending point.

Now, since repetition is the name of the game in learning a language, let’s repeat the endings again.

aba - abas - aba - ábamos - abais - aban

Now we’ll practice with a few different verbs. Are you ready?

I used to dance   (Yo) bailaba  
You were resting – using “tú”   (Tú) descansabas  
He studied every Monday   (Él) estudiaba cada lunes  
She used to call   (Ella) llamaba  
You were traveling to the beach…   (Ud.) viajaba a la playa…  
We used to visit…   (Nosotros) visitábamos  
They drove every week   (Ellos) manejaban  
All of you were practicing   (Uds.) practicaban  

I was answering   contestaba  
(Marta) You used to arrive…   llegabas  
He asked (sometimes)   preguntaba  
She was buying   compraba  
(Sra. García) You used call   llamaba  
We carried it (on Thursdays)   lo llevábamos  
They were changing   cambiaban  
All of you used to clean   limpiaban  
I conversed (every day)   conversaba  
(Pepe) You were cooking   cocinaba  
He used to dance   bailaba  
She delivered (daily)   entregaba  
(Sr. Mendes) You were drawing   dibujaba  
We used to work   trabajábamos  
They ate breakfast (almost every day)   desayunaban  
All of you were eating dinner   cenaban  
I used to explain it   lo explicaba  
(Juana) You fixed it (every week)   lo arreglaba  
He was finishing it   lo terminaba  
She used to go down   bajaba  
(Sra. Álvarez) You were helping   ayudaba  
We used to hit it   lo pegábamos  
They always invited them   siempre los invitaban  
All of you were jumping   saltaban