surgir Imperfect Conjugation
surgir — to arise
The imperfect of surgir is regular: surgía, surgías, surgía, surgíamos, surgíais, surgían.
surgir Imperfect Forms
When to Use the Imperfect
Use this to describe recurring issues that used to arise or to set the scene when something else happened (background info).
Notes on surgir in the Imperfect
Surgir is regular in the imperfect. All -ir verbs in this tense use the -ía ending with a mandatory accent mark.
Example Sentences
Surgían problemas técnicos todos los días.
Technical problems used to arise every day.
ellos/ellas/ustedes
Mientras surgía la idea, yo tomaba notas.
While the idea was emerging, I was taking notes.
él/ella/usted
Common Mistakes
Mistake: surgía (without accent)
Correct: surgía
Why: The accent on the 'í' is required for all forms of -ir verbs in the imperfect to separate the vowels.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: surjo
The present of surgir undergoes a spelling change in the 'yo' form (surjo) to keep the 'h' sound.
Preterite
yo: surgí
The preterite of surgir is regular: surgí, surgiste, surgió, surgimos, surgisteis, surgieron.
Future
yo: surgiré
The future of surgir is regular: surgiré, surgirás, surgirá, surgiremos, surgiréis, surgirán.
Conditional
yo: surgiría
The conditional of surgir is regular: surgiría, surgirías, surgiría, surgiríamos, surgiríais, surgirían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: surja
The present subjunctive of surgir uses the 'j' spelling in all forms: surja, surjas, surja, surjamos, surjáis, surjan.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: surgiera
The imperfect subjunctive of surgir is regular, based on the 'surgieron' stem: surgiera, surgieras, surgiera...
Affirmative Imperative
yo: surge
The imperative of surgir is rarely used for people, but commonly used for ideas or things: surge, surja, surjamos.
Negative Imperative
yo: no surjas
The negative imperative of surgir always uses the 'j' spelling: no surjas, no surja, no surjan.