cabalgar Imperfect Conjugation
cabalgar — to ride a horse
The imperfect of cabalgar is regular: cabalgaba, cabalgabas, cabalgaba, cabalgábamos, cabalgabais, cabalgaban.
cabalgar Imperfect Forms
When to Use the Imperfect
Use this to describe how you used to ride horses habitually or to set the scene (e.g., 'The knight was riding...').
Notes on cabalgar in the Imperfect
Cabalgar is fully regular in the imperfect. All -ar verbs use the -aba endings.
Example Sentences
De niño, yo cabalgaba cada tarde.
As a child, I used to ride every afternoon.
yo
Nosotros cabalgábamos mientras el sol se ponía.
We were riding while the sun was setting.
nosotros
Ustedes cabalgaban con mucha elegancia.
You all used to ride with a lot of elegance.
ellos/ellas/ustedes
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Forgetting the accent on 'cabalgábamos'.
Correct: cabalgábamos
Why: The nosotros form of the imperfect always has an accent on the first 'a' of the suffix -ábamos.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: cabalgo
Cabalgar is a completely regular -ar verb in the present tense: cabalgo, cabalgas, cabalga, cabalgamos, cabalgáis, cabalgan.
Preterite
yo: cabalgué
Cabalgar is regular except for the 'yo' form (cabalgué), which adds a 'u' to keep the hard 'g' sound.
Future
yo: cabalgaré
The future tense of cabalgar is regular: add the endings -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án to the infinitive.
Conditional
yo: cabalgaría
The conditional of cabalgar is regular: add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían to the infinitive.
Present Subjunctive
yo: cabalgue
Cabalgar requires a spelling change from 'g' to 'gu' in all forms: cabalgue, cabalgues, cabalgue, cabalguemos, cabalguéis, cabalguen.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: cabalgara
The imperfect subjunctive of cabalgar is regular, based on the third-person plural preterite: cabalgara, cabalgaras, cabalgara...
Affirmative Imperative
yo: cabalga
The imperative uses 'cabalga' (tú) and spelling-changed forms for others: cabalgue (usted), cabalguen (ustedes).
Negative Imperative
yo: no cabalgues
The negative imperative always uses the present subjunctive forms: no cabalgues, no cabalgue, no cabalguemos, no cabalguéis, no cabalguen.