impedir Imperfect Conjugation
impedir — to prevent
Impedir is regular in the imperfect: impedía, impedías, impedía, impedíamos, impedíais, impedían.
impedir Imperfect Forms
When to Use the Imperfect
Use the imperfect to describe ongoing obstacles in the past or habitual things that used to prevent an action.
Notes on impedir in the Imperfect
There are no stem changes in the imperfect for -ir verbs. It follows the standard -ía endings.
Example Sentences
La falta de dinero nos impedía viajar.
The lack of money used to prevent us from traveling.
él/ella/usted
En ese entonces, nada impedía que jugáramos en la calle.
Back then, nothing prevented us from playing in the street.
él/ella/usted
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Impidía.
Correct: Impedía.
Why: Stem changes like e>i do not occur in the imperfect tense for this verb.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: impido
Impedir is an e>i stem-changing verb in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.
Preterite
yo: impedí
Impedir is irregular in the preterite, changing the 'e' to 'i' in the third-person forms: impidió and impidieron.
Future
yo: impediré
Impedir is regular in the future: just add the endings to the full infinitive.
Conditional
yo: impediría
The conditional of impedir is regular: impediría, impedirías, impediría, impediríamos, impediríais, impedirían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: impida
Impedir changes 'e' to 'i' in all forms of the present subjunctive, including nosotros and vosotros.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: impidiera
Based on the 'ellos' preterite, the stem is 'impidier-'.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: impide
Use 'impide' for tú and 'impida' for usted; remember the stem change.
Negative Imperative
yo: no impidas
The negative imperative uses the present subjunctive forms: no impidas, no impida, no impidamos.