Key learning points

1. To talk about something that used to happen in the past, we use the imperfect tense.
2. To say ‘there used to be’, ‘there was’ or ‘there were’, use ‘había’. Sentences with ‘había’ often start with ‘en’.
3. To say ‘I, she, he used to have’ or ‘I, she, he had’ in the imperfect tense, use ‘tenía’.
4. With other -ar verbs, to talk about 'she' or 'he', add -aba to the stem of the verb. With -er and -ir verbs, add -ía.
5. Don Quijote de La Mancha, written by Miguel de Cervantes, is considered the first modern novel.

Keywords

• Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past

• Había - form of 'haber' meaning 'there was, were' or 'there used to be'

• Tenía - form of 'tener' meaning 'I had, used to have' or 'she, he, it had, used to have'

Common misconception