practicar means: to practise, to carry out, to do, to perform, to play
Click to see all conjugation charts of practicar in every tense

In this conjugation lesson we will learn how to inflect the verb practicar in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the practicar verb conjugation. For a general overview of Simple Tenses conjugation check the Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see this Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Imperfecto. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you can get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Imperfecto to English

Note that the phrases in English provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

Note the timeline

The ability to correctly locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for the right choice of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After some practice you’ll be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Imperfecto belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of the inflected forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in Spanish language, where each conjugated form consists of two words.The verb practicar has an entirely regular conjugation in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means this verb simply follows the general rules for its conjugation group (-ar) without any exceptions. This tense is really easy, because only three exceptions exist! The basis for this conjugation is the stem of the verb, so we need to start by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do. Simply remove two letters from the end of the infinitive form to get the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So for our verb:

• the stem is: practic-
• and the ending is: -ar

Use the stem practic- in each person as the basis for conjugation, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. See the image on the side showing all the six endings. Note the colors and shapes of the letters. It should help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. Add the regular ending -aba for the first person singular to create practicaba:

• yo practicaba – I practised

Again add the regular ending -abas for the second person singular to create practicabas:

• tú practicabas – you practised

And similarly add the regular ending -aba for the third person singular to create practicaba:

• él practicaba – he practised
• ella practicaba – she practised
• usted practicaba – (formal) you practised

And add the regular ending -ábamos for the first person plural to create practicábamos. Note difference in spelling

Only the first person plural has an accent here.

This difference exists only in case of the verbs from the -ar group. Other groups always have an accented i in the ending in this tense.So add the accent to get practicábamos:

• nosotros practicábamos – we practised
• nosotras practicábamos – (feminine) we practised

And again add the regular ending -abais for the second person plural to create practicabais:

• vosotros practicabais – (plural) you practised
• vosotras practicabais – (feminine, plural) you practised

Similarly add the regular ending -aban for the third person plural to create practicaban:

• ellos practicaban – they practised
• ellas practicaban – (feminine) they practised
• ustedes practicaban – (formal, plural) you practised

This is it! The conjugation is now done. The final result looks as follows:

yo	practicaba	I practised
tú	practicabas	you practised
él/ella/usted	practicaba	he/she/it practised
nosotros/nosotras	practicábamos	we practised
vosotros/vosotras	practicabais	you practised
ellos/ellas/ustedes	practicaban	they practised

Click to see all conjugation charts of practicar in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to remember it. Check below for suggestions.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test your skills try this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PresentePretéritoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to practicar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for practicar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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