Imperfecto de subjuntivo: formas

Si tuviera tiempo, iría a la fiesta.If I had time, I'd go to the party.

The imperfect subjunctive (imperfecto de subjuntivo) isn't built from scratch — it's built from a tense you already know. Take the ustedes/ellos/ellas form of the preterite, drop the -ron, and add one of two fully interchangeable sets of endings. This article is only about how to build those forms; when they're actually required — imaginary conditions and a few other triggers — gets its own dedicated lesson.

Quick shortcut: ustedes/ellos/ellas preterite, minus -ron, plus -ra, -ras, -ra, -ramos, -rais, -ran (or the equally correct -se, -ses, -se, -semos, -seis, -sen).

Two endings, one meaning

Spanish has two complete sets of imperfect subjunctive endings, and they mean exactly the same thing — pick whichever you like:

Si hablara/hablase español, entendería más. (If I spoke Spanish, I'd understand more.) Ojalá vinieras/vinieses a la fiesta. (I wish you'd come to the party.) The -ra forms are the more common choice overall, especially in Latin America; -se is more typical of literary or formal European Spanish — but nothing changes in meaning by choosing one over the other.

Only the nosotros/as form carries a written accent (habláramos, comiéramos). Without it, hablaramos would default to stress on -ra-, the second-to-last syllable — but habláramos actually keeps its stress on -blá-, the same syllable stressed in hablara itself. In the four-syllable nosotros/as form, that syllable is now the third-from-last, and a word stressed there always needs a written accent, so Spanish spelling requires it here to preserve the correct pronunciation. Every other person is unaccented: hablara, not ❌ hablára.

The stem is the preterite, irregularities included

Because the imperfect subjunctive is built directly from the ustedes/ellos/ellas preterite, any irregularity already baked into that preterite form carries straight through — there's no separate list of irregular imperfect-subjunctive stems to learn:

Si fuera rico, viajaría por el mundo. (If I were rich, I'd travel the world.) Ojalá tuviéramos más tiempo. (I wish we had more time.)

-ir stem-changing verbs (pedir, dormir, sentir, morir) also carry their preterite change into every person of the imperfect subjunctive, not just some — because the whole form comes from that same ellos/ellas preterite:

• pedir → pidieron → pidiera, pidieras, pidiera, pidiéramos, pidierais, pidieran
• dormir → durmieron → durmiera, durmieras, durmiera, durmiéramos, durmierais, durmieran
• sentir → sintieron → sintiera, sintieras, sintiera, sintiéramos, sintierais, sintieran

Decir and traer need special care: their preterite stems end in -j (dij-, traj-), and that group takes -eron, not -ieron, in the ellos/ellas preterite. Drop only the -eron, so the imperfect subjunctive is dijera, trajera — never ❌ dijiera, ❌ trajiera.

Spelling-change verbs like buscar, llegar and empezar need no adjustment here, unlike in the present subjunctive: their ellos/ellas preterite (buscaron, llegaron, empezaron) never triggered a spelling change to begin with, so the imperfect subjunctive stem is just buscara, llegara, empezara.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Ojalá dijiera la verdad. → ✅ Ojalá dijera la verdad. (decir's preterite is dijeron, not dijieron — drop only -eron.)
• ❌ Si hablára más despacio, te entendería. → ✅ Si hablara más despacio, te entendería. (only the nosotros/as form takes a written accent; every other person is unaccented.)
• ❌ Quería que tengas paciencia. → ✅ Quería que tuvieras paciencia. (the imperfect subjunctive stem comes from the preterite tuvieron, not from the present-subjunctive stem teng-.)
• ❌ Esperábamos que él viene pronto. → ✅ Esperábamos que él viniera pronto. (a present-tense form never substitutes for the imperfect subjunctive once it's required.)

Quick check

Give the imperfect subjunctive yo form (either ending set) of each verb.

1. hablar
2. tener
3. decir
4. pedir
5. ser

Key takeaways

• Build it from the ustedes/ellos/ellas preterite minus -ron, plus -ra, -ras, -ra, -ramos, -rais, -ran or the fully equivalent -se, -ses, -se, -semos, -seis, -sen.
• Only the nosotros/as form carries a written accent (habláramos, comiéramos) — every other person is unaccented.
• Every preterite irregularity carries straight through, including -ir stem changes in every person (pidiera, durmiera) and the -j-stem shortcut for decir/traer (dijera, trajera, never dijiera/trajiera).
• Spelling-change verbs (buscar, llegar, empezar) need no adjustment here — unlike the present subjunctive, their ellos/ellas preterite never triggered one.