The Imperfect Tense of pintar is used to describe ongoing or repeated actions in the past, for example, Yo pintaba la casa todos los veranos. (I used to paint the house every summer.)

Pintar is a regular -ar verb, so its Imperfect conjugations follow the typical pattern by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the Imperfect endings.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Pintar (to paint) in the Imperfect Tense tense (Latin American Spanish):

The imperfect tense of pintar is used to describe ongoing, repeated or habitual actions in the past.

Describing an ongoing action in the past: For example, Yo pintaba un cuadro cuando llegaste. (I was painting a picture when you arrived.)

Describing repeated or habitual actions in the past: For example, De niño, pintaba mucho en las paredes. (As a child, I used to paint a lot on the walls.)

Describing physical or emotional states in the past: For example, La casa pintaba bien por fuera, pero por dentro estaba hecha un desastre. (The house looked good on the outside, but on the inside it was a mess.)

Slang/Idiomatic usage: For example, Me la pintaba de artista, pero en realidad no sabía ni dibujar. (I pretended to be an artist, but in reality I couldn’t even draw.)

Examples

Examples of Pintar in the Imperfect Tense

Cuando era niño, pintaba muros con aerosol. (When I was a child, I used to paint walls with spray paint.)

Mi abuela pintaba cuadros de paisajes rurales. (My grandmother used to paint rural landscape paintings.)

El artista callejero pintaba retratos de turistas por unas monedas. (The street artist used to paint portraits of tourists for a few coins.)

Ellos pintaban las paredes de colores brillantes para animar la casa. (They used to paint the walls bright colors to liven up the house.)

Nosotros pintábamos graffiti en los vagones del tren cuando éramos adolescentes. (We used to paint graffiti on the train cars when we were teenagers.)

Tú pintabas diseños abstractos con tus dedos cuando eras bebé. (You used to paint abstract designs with your fingers when you were a baby.)

Ella pintaba sus uñas de rojo cada semana. (She used to paint her nails red every week.)

¿Pintabas las paredes de tu cuarto cuando eras chico? (Did you use to paint the walls of your room when you were a kid?)

Los obreros pintaban las líneas en la carretera durante la noche. (The workers used to paint the lines on the road at night.)

Yo pintaba caras en las calabazas para Halloween. (I used to paint faces on pumpkins for Halloween.)

En la escuela, pintábamos con acuarelas los viernes. (At school, we used to paint with watercolors on Fridays.)

Mi mamá pintaba las ventanas de blanco cada primavera. (My mom used to paint the windows white every spring.)

Los grafiteros pintaban los muros con mensajes políticos. (The graffiti artists used to paint political messages on the walls.)

¿Por qué pintabas las paredes de negro cuando eras gótico? (Why did you use to paint the walls black when you were goth?)

Antes, pintábamos las casas nosotros mismos, pero ahora contratamos pintores. (Before, we used to paint the houses ourselves, but now we hire painters.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Pintar (to paint) in the Imperfect Tense tense (Latin American Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Latin American Spanish. For Castilian Spanish, click here

Synonyms

The Imperfect tense is also known as the Past Imperfect, Descriptive Past, Past Progressive, or Imperfect Indicative in English, and as Pretérito Imperfecto, Copretérito, Imperfecto de Indicativo, or Pasado Descriptivo in Spanish.