![]() Yo tocaba el piano - I used to play the piano at some point in the past, but I don't anymore. Toqué el piano - I played the piano (yesterday, or that night, or whatever specific timeframe context provides) What happened vs The way things wereĪnother way to look at it is that the preterite is for talking about things that happened in the past, while the imperfect is for the way things were in the past. Yo leía el libro - I was reading the book (and the start and end times don't matter). Yo leí el libro - I read the book (and now I'm done). Yo comía la manzana - I was eating the apple (when something else happened). Yo tocaba el piano - I used to play the piano or, you are saying that you were playing the piano when setting the scene for a story. Toqué el piano - I played the piano (and I finished the action). With some practice, this is fairly easy to remember. The basic rule of thumb when it comes to figuring out which tense to use is that the preterite talks about things you did, and the imperfect talks about things you were doing at some point in time, or that you used to do. (We weren't able to open the door.) Distinguishing Between Preterite and Imperfect What you did vs What you were doing (I did not want to go to the supermarket.) When forming the imperfect for a regular -ar verb, drop the -ar just like in the preterite conjugation but this time we add the imperfect ending. Again when using the imperfect we don't care so much about the details of what happened (when I do, how did I, when did I stop going) the important fact in this sentence is that there was a time when I would go but I no longer go anymore. "I used to go" denotes that something used to occur before but now it doesn't. We don't know when they stopped eating dinner, but in this sentence it doesn't matter because we are more focused on the fact that they were eating.Īnother example of the imperfect in English might be: Here, we know that the action of eating dinner took place in the past, but it does not have a definite beginning or end, nor does it matter for the sentence's purpose. Using "were" plus the gerund denotes the imperfect past in English. The endings of these irregulars are all the same, which is why I am referring to them as more regular.The imperfect is used to denote an action that took place in the past, but the specifics of the timeframe are left up in the air. We will start with the more regular of the 2. ![]() There are 2 types of irregular verbs in the preterite tense. This can cause confusion so look for context tools to make sure you have the right tense.Įliminate the "-er" or "-ir" and replace it with one of the following endings:Ĭonjugate irregular verbs in the preterite Notice that the "nosotros" form conjugates the same as it does in the present tense. Spanish has another past tense form, the imperfect, that is used for past actions that are continuing, or for which its beginning or its end is not important.Ĭonjugate regular verbs in the preterite Įliminate the "-ar" and replace it with one of the following endings: The preterite sets something in the past as an event, with a beginning and an end. The preterite verb form describes past actions that have begun or completed.
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