Imperfecto y Imperfecto del progresivo Remember the imperfect in Spanish covers what used to happen and what was going on in the past. However, to capture the idea of what was happening at the moment the imperfect progressive works even better. The imperfect progressive in Spanish is very similar to the past progressive in English: to be + verb –ing I was running. / You were talking. Estar + verbo (-AR) –ando Estaba(estabas, estábamos, etc.) hablando, mirando, pasando (-ER/-IR) –iendo Estaba (estaban, etc) comiendo, escribiendo, abriendo Don’t forget that the –IR sandal verbs apply the stem change in the gerund form (durmió durmiendo)[ei : pedir, servir, seguir, repetir, decir] [ou : dormir, morir]. Also, there are spelling changes for verbs that have the double vowel in the gerund form (leer—leiendo leyendo). [caer, traer, oír, distribuir, contribuir, construer :i y] Read the following sentences expressing what the subjects were doing using the simple imperfect and fill in the blank with the correct form of the imperfect progressive to indicate what they were doing at that time. 1. Yo ponía (___________ _________) mis libros en mi mochila cuando llegaste. 2. María dormía (__________ _________) cuando ocurrió el terremoto. 3. Hablábamos inglés (__________ ____________) por eso el profesor se enojó. 4. Los alumnos leían (_________ ______________) la novela cuando la profesora se desmayó. 5. ¿Qué decías ( ____________ ______________)?