Ocurrir imperfect conjugation
Ocurrir in the imperfect: ocurría, ocurrías, ocurría, ocurríamos, ocurríais, ocurrían.
- to happen, to occur; to occur to (someone)
- regular
- Participle: ocurrido
- Gerund: ocurriendo
Imperfect imperfecto
| yo | ocurría |
|---|---|
| tú | ocurrías |
| él/ella/usted | ocurría |
| nosotros | ocurríamos |
| vosotros | ocurríais |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | ocurrían |
How to use ocurrir in the imperfect
The imperfect (ocurría, ocurrían) describes what used to happen or what was happening in the background. Use it for repeated situations (eso ocurría todos los inviernos) and in descriptions of a scene: mientras eso ocurría, nadie decía nada. With pronouns, no se me ocurría nada means you could not think of anything at that point in the past. In stories, it sets the scene before the main event.
Examples
No se me ocurría ninguna respuesta.
I couldn't think of an answer.
Esos cortes de luz ocurrían casi cada semana.
Those power outages used to happen almost every week.
Mientras todo eso ocurría, el gerente estaba de vacaciones.
While all that was going on, the manager was on vacation.
Quick check: ocurrir in the imperfect
More ocurrir tenses
- All ocurrir tenses
- Ocurrir present
- Ocurrir preterite
- Ocurrir future
- Ocurrir conditional
- Ocurrir present subjunctive
- Ocurrir affirmative commands
Other verbs in the imperfect
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