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tendía

tendía is the third‑person singular (él/ella/usted) form of the Spanish verb tender in the imperfect indicative, as well as the first‑person singular (yo) form in the same tense. The verb tender carries several related meanings, including “to stretch, to spread, to lay out” (as in “tender una cuerda” – to stretch a rope) and “to tend, to care for” (as in “tender a los enfermos” – to tend to the sick). In the imperfect, tendía conveys an ongoing or habitual action in the past, such as “Él tendía la tela cada mañana” (He used to stretch the cloth every morning) or “Yo tendía el jardín antes de la lluvia” (I was tending the garden before the rain).

The conjugation follows the regular pattern of -er verbs in the imperfect: yo tendía, tú tendías, él/ella/usted

tendía,
nosotros/nosotras
tendíamos,
vosotros/vosotras
tendíais,
ellos/ellas/ustedes
tendían.
The
form
is
phonologically
distinguished
by
the
accent
on
the
final
“í”,
which
signals
the
stress
pattern
typical
of
imperfect
endings.
In
literature,
tendía
often
appears
in
descriptive
passages
that
set
a
background
of
continuous
activity,
reinforcing
the
temporal
nuance
of
past
habituality.
The
term
is
therefore
a
key
example
of
Spanish
verb
morphology
that
illustrates
both
the
regular
imperfect
pattern
and
the
semantic
range
of
tender.