contribuir Imperfect Conjugation
contribuir — to contribute
The imperfect of contribuir is regular: contribuía, contribuías, contribuía, contribuíamos, contribuíais, contribuían.
contribuir Imperfect Forms
When to Use the Imperfect
Use this for habitual contributions in the past or to describe an ongoing state of helping before something else happened.
Notes on contribuir in the Imperfect
Contribuir is completely regular in the imperfect. All -ir verbs use the -ía endings in this tense.
Example Sentences
Antes, nosotros contribuíamos cada año.
Before, we used to contribute every year.
nosotros
Ella siempre contribuía con alegría.
She always used to contribute with joy.
él/ella/usted
Los socios contribuían con dinero mensualmente.
The partners contributed money monthly.
ellos/ellas/ustedes
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Forgetting the accent mark on the 'í'.
Correct: contribuía
Why: Every single form of the imperfect for -ir verbs requires an accent on the 'i'.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: contribuyo
The present tense of contribuir adds a 'y' before endings: contribuyo, contribuyes, contribuye, contribuyen.
Preterite
yo: contribuí
In the preterite, contribuir changes 'i' to 'y' in the third-person forms: contribuyó and contribuyeron.
Future
yo: contribuiré
The future tense of contribuir is regular: añadir the endings to the infinitive (contribuiré, contribuirás, etc.).
Conditional
yo: contribuiría
The conditional of contribuir is regular: añadir the endings -ía to the infinitive (contribuiría).
Present Subjunctive
yo: contribuya
The present subjunctive uses the 'y' stem from the 'yo' form: contribuya, contribuyas, contribuya...
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: contribuyera
The imperfect subjunctive uses the 'y' from the preterite: contribuyera, contribuyeras, contribuyera...
Affirmative Imperative
yo: contribuye
Use 'contribuye' (tú) or 'contribuya' (usted) to tell someone to help out.
Negative Imperative
yo: no contribuyas
All negative commands for contribuir use the 'y' stem: no contribuyas, no contribuya, no contribuyamos.