In Spanish, there are two simple past tenses: the preterite and the imperfect.
In very general terms, the preterite tense is used to refer to a single event that happened at a specific point of time or had a specific duration in the past, while the imperfect tense is used to describe ongoing events or events without a specific time period in the past.
Preterite
-ar verbs | -er & -ir verbs Example: VIVIR (to live) | |||
| yo (I) | -é | salté I jumped | -í | viví I lived |
| tú (you) | -aste | saltaste you jumped | -iste | viviste you lived |
| él, ella (he, she, it) | -ó | saltó he/she jumped | -ió | vivió he/she lived |
| nosotros/as (we) | -amos | saltamos we jumped | -imos | vivimos we lived |
| vosotros/as (you all) | -asteis | saltasteis you all jumped | -isteis | vivisteis you all lived |
| ellos, ellas (they) | -aron | saltaron they jumped | -ieron | vivieron they lived |
The preterite tense is used...
- To describe something that happened once.
- Cantó una canción. (He sang a song.)
- Escribí la carta. (I wrote the letter.)
- I woke up early this morning. (Me desperté temprano esta mañana)
- To describe something that happened more than once, but had a specific end.
- Fui a cuatro restaurantes la semana pasada. (I went to four restaurants last week.)
- De niño, fui de camping cada verano. (As a child, I went camping every summer.)
Imperfect
-ar verbs | -er & -ir verbs Example: VIVIR (to live) | |||
| yo (I) | -aba | saltaba I jumped/was jumping | -ía | vivía I lived/was living |
| tú (you) | -abas | saltabas you jumped/were jumping | -ías | vivías you lived/were living |
| él, ella (he, she, it) | -aba | saltaba he jumped/was jumping | -ía | vivía he lived/was living |
| nosotros/as (we) | -ábamos | saltábamos we jumped/were jumping | -íamos | vivíamos we lived/were living |
| vosotros/as (you all) | -aba | saltabais you all jumped/were jumping | -íais | vivíais you all lived/were living |
| ellos, ellas (they) | -aban | saltaban they jumped/were jumping | -ían | vivían they lived/were living |
The imperfect tense is used...
- To describe habitual or repeated actions in the past.
- Siempre compraba en la misma tienda. (I always went shopping at the same store.)
- Mi abuela me escribía muchas cartas. (My grandmother would write me a lot of letters.)
- To describe a condition or state of being in the past.
- Estaba contenta. (She was happy.)
- Había dos edificios aquí. (There used to be two buildings here.)
- To describe an action that occurred over an unspecified time.
- Hablámos por teléfono. (We were talking on the phone.)
- Pasaba al perro. (He was walking the dog.)
- To indicate time or age in the past.
- Tenía 18 años. (She was 18 years old)
- Eran las ocho y media de la mañana. (It was 8:30 in the morning)
- To describe a person or place
- Tenía el pelo largo y los ojos azules. (She had long hair y blue eyes.)