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When do we use the imperfect tense in Spanish?

You know when it happened, and you know that it’s over. Meanwhile, the preterite is like a bird flying into your window. It can’t be contained within clear beginning and endpoints or labeled with a date, it’s just an easy breeze. The difference between preterite and imperfect is that preterite is used for more specific points in time, whereas with imperfect, it may not be clear when the event started or ended, perhaps because it’s a habit or condition. The imperfect tense is a more general tense, used to talk about events that perhaps are still ongoing, or that do not have a definitive beginning and end. Past tense Spanish has another major player in this game called the imperfect. You can often translate simple past in English to the preterite, with a few important exceptions. To turn (a certain age), To have a birthday Some verbs, simply because their meaning represents an interruption, a beginning or end, or a specific one-time event, are almost always used in the preterite tense. Verbs Almost Always Used in the Preterite These words show that you’re talking about a specific time and a specific moment, so although they don’t always mean preterite, they should definitely make your ears perk up and show you that you will most likely be using preterite. Some words and phrases that trigger the preterite tense When speaking about the beginning or end of something In this example, the fact that we listed a specific amount of time, three hours, is a sign that we’re talking about something that began and ended, so it should be in the preterite tense. I worked in the cafe for three hours, but I never paid my bill! – Trabajé en el café durante tres horas, ¡pero nunca pagué la cuenta!.To talk about an action that went on for a specific amount of time – Yo estaba cruzando la calle cuando la mesera me gritó. I was crossing the street when the waitress shouted at me.To talk about an action that interrupted another action – Te vi, cerré mi compu, y fui a saludarte.

I saw you, I closed my laptop, and I went over to say hi.

In this example, the fact that we said “yesterday” is a tip-off that we should use preterite because it shows we are talking about something that happened at a specific moment. To talk about something that happened at a specific point in the past The preterite is often referred to as simple past Spanish, or even just the Spanish past tense. It’s used to describe events that happened and ended in the past, such as events that have a clear beginning and end. Preterite is one of the most common tenses used to speak about the past in Spanish. Let’s get started! What is Preterite Tense We’ll finish up with a nice list of preterite conjugations for many of the most common verbs in Spanish. Preterite conjugations can get a little bit spicy, so here we’ll go over the preterite conjugation and preterite endings, including the preterite irregulars and preterite stem-changing verbs. The other Spanish simple past tense is called imperfect, so we’ll cover its details as well in order to compare preterite vs imperfect. The Spanish preterite is most similar to the simple past tense in English, comparable to adding -ed to the end of a word, although there are some important differences that we’ll get into. We mean one-and-done, clear-cut actions in the past. So, we don’t use preterite tense Spanish to describe a scene, or to talk about actions that were habits or a process. There are other past tenses in Spanish, but you only use the preterite when you are talking about actions in the past that have been completed, and that have a definitive beginning and end. When speaking in the past tense in Spanish, we use the preterite tense, or pretérito simple.