freír Imperfect Conjugation
freír — to fry
Freír is regular in the imperfect: freía, freías, freía, freíamos, freíais, freían.
freír Imperfect Forms
When to Use the Imperfect
Use the imperfect to describe how you used to fry food in the past or to set the scene (e.g., 'I was frying the onions when the phone rang').
Notes on freír in the Imperfect
Freír is regular in the imperfect, but remember that all -ir verbs in the imperfect have an accent on the 'í'.
Example Sentences
Mi abuela siempre freía las tortillas a mano.
My grandmother always used to fry the tortillas by hand.
él/ella/usted
Mientras yo freía el ajo, tú cortabas el pan.
While I was frying the garlic, you were cutting the bread.
yo
Nosotros freíamos patatas cada viernes.
We used to fry potatoes every Friday.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Forgetting the accent on the 'i' (freia).
Correct: freía
Why: All imperfect endings for -er and -ir verbs require an accent on the 'i'.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: frío
Freír is a stem-changing verb where the 'e' becomes 'í' in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.
Preterite
yo: freí
Freír has a stem change (e > i) in the third-person forms and requires accents on most endings.
Future
yo: freiré
Freír is regular in the future: freiré, freirás, freirá, freiremos, freiréis, freirán.
Conditional
yo: freiría
Freír is regular in the conditional: freiría, freirías, freiría, freiríamos, freiríais, freirían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: fría
The present subjunctive of freír uses the 'i' stem change: fría, frías, fría, friamos, friáis, frían.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: friera
The imperfect subjunctive uses the 'fri-' stem: friera, frieras, friera, friéramos, frierais, frieran.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: fríe
Give commands to fry: fríe (tú), fría (usted), friamos (nosotros), freíd (vosotros), frían (ustedes).
Negative Imperative
yo: no frías
Negative commands use the present subjunctive: no frías, no fría, no friamos, no friáis, no frían.