Throughout my career as a Spanish teacher, I have come to realize that one of the grammar points that most students struggle with is the use of past tense; more specifically, the preterite and imperfect tense.

 

In Spanish speech, we use four past tenses: imperfect, preterite, perfect, and pluperfect. If we conjugate the verb estar in the first person singular yo, the results would be the following four words respectively: estaba, estuve, he estado, and había estado.

 

Two of these past tense forms use the auxiliary verb haber (to have). These are the perfect and pluperfect forms, and they don’t represent a great challenge to English speakers. This is because they relate directly to English and can be directly translated with just a few variations, as seen below: 

 

  • Yo he estado dos veces en Argentina (I have been to Argentina twice).
  • Él siempre ha estado sólo (He has always been alone).
  • Cuando la policía lo detuvo, ya se había gastado todo el dinero (When the police stopped him, he had already spent all the money).

 

But, when we get to the differences between the imperfect and preterite, things start to get blurry because they don’t have this relationship with English. This difference is extremely important to understand since there is always a difference in meaning between the two tenses.

 

Compare these two sentences, for example:

 

  • Cuando Carlos cruzaba la calle, escuchó su teléfono que sonaba.
  • Cuando Carlos cruzó la calle, escuchó su teléfono que sonaba.

 

The first sentence communicates that Carlos heard his phone ringing while he was still crossing the street. The second sentence says that he has already crossed the street when he heard his phone ring. They both convey a different time and scenario in which the action took place. Clarifying differences like these is the purpose of this article.

 

 

What is imperfect and what is preterite?

 

Before looking at the differences between these two tenses, let’s define them both so we can understand their specific functions.

 

 

1) Preterite

 

The preterite tense is used to express an action, event, or state of mind that both happened and ended at a specific moment in the past -- meaning the event lasted over a definite period of time.


Examples:

 

  • Miguel cerró el libro (He closed the book).
  • Terminé mi tarea (I finished my homework).

 

 

2) Imperfect

 

Whilst the preterite specifies the beginning and ending of an action in the past, the imperfect is the opposite. It is used to talk about ongoing actions that took place over an indefinite period of time. It has three main uses: descriptions of the past, talking about past habitual actions, and talking about the circumstances surrounding a specific action in the past.

 

Examples:

 

  • Betty era muy alta cuando era joven (Betty was very tall when she was young).
  • De pequeño, Luis jugaba muy bien al fútbol (When he was young, Luis used to play soccer very well).
  • Ayer hacía mucho frío (It was very cold yesterday).

 

 

So… what’s the difference?

 

So far so good, right? At this point you might think that knowing when to use which is straightforward, but things start to get blurry when using both of these tenses combined. Here is a little trick that will help you master this: when facing this decision, try to answer the following two questions.

 

1) Was the action completed in the past or not?

 

The key here is to remember that in the preterite past tense, the action ended at a specific moment, whilst in the imperfect past tense it continues. Think of it this way: the preterite captures a snapshot of a past event, but the imperfect captures a short video of a past action.

 

There are some words and phrases that identify the definite or indefinite nature of the action in the sentence. Preterite verbs specify a time period. For example de repente, anoche, el año pasado, and una vez.

 

Imperfect verbs, on the other hand, are often accompanied by words or expressions that imply repetition or habitual actions. For example normalmente, todos los días, a menudo, and todo el tiempo. You can use reference these words, when they occur, as indicators of the correct tense to use.


Examples:

 

  • Anoche fui a un concierto
  • La semana pasada terminé mi proyecto
  • Yo hacía ejercicios todos los días cuando era joven
  • Yo antes estudiaba todo el tiempo

 

2) Does the action set the circumstance or not?

 

We often refer to the imperfect as a “descriptive tense”, because it’s used to talk about ongoing circumstances. When talking about the past, it is common to use the imperfect to “set the scene” in which a definite action happens, as if one action happens within another. For example:

 

  • Cuando vivía en Italia conocí a mucha gente (When I was living in Italy, I met many people).

 

Here you can clearly see that the imperfect of vivir sets the environment in which the preterite form of conocer occurs.

 

  • Cuando iba a mi casa me encontré una moneda en el suelo (When I was on my way home, I found a coin on the floor).

 

If you imagine this scene, you know that the person was walking on the street when, suddenly, something happened. The second action happens whilst the first action is still developing, as if it is “setting the scene” for everything else that occurs.

 

 

Let’s see all this in action!

 

Let’s put everything I have taught you today into practice.Below is a real-life text which uses plenty of combinations of preterite and imperfect. We will divide them into bite-sized pieces and analyze them to understand why one is used over the other in each case.

 

“Mi abuela nació en un pequeño pueblo al norte de Colombia en 1.930. Era una niña muy inteligente que soñaba con ir a la universidad a estudiar una carrera, Cuando tenía quince años, sus padres murieron. Como no tenía suficiente dinero, empezó a trabajar en una panadería que pertenecía a la familia más rica del pueblo. Allí conoció a mi abuelo, que también trabajaba en la panadería. Ellos se enamoraron a primera vista y decidieron casarse muy pronto aunque no tenían mucho dinero. En 1943 nació su primer hijo, mi tío Samuel. Dos años más tarde nació mi madre Elena. Por los niños mi abuela ya no podía trabajar más en la fábrica; por eso, empezó a hacer pan casero en casa para venderlo. Como a la gente del pueblo le gustaba mucho el pan de mi abuela, ella vendía muchos panes cada día y ganaba más dinero que en la fábrica. Por eso, mi abuelo dejó la panadería también y empezó a ayudar a mi abuela con su pequeño negocio. Años más tarde este negocio creció mucho y se convirtió en la panadería más grande de la región”.

 

Daunting, isn’t it? Don’t worry. Let’s break it down bit by bit:

 

  • Mi abuela nació en un pequeño pueblo al norte de Colombia en 1.930. 
    • Here we use the preterite form because we have a specific time and the action has been completed.

 

  • Era una niña muy inteligente que soñaba con ir a la universidad a estudiar una carrera.
    • We use the imperfect in both of these cases because both actions are ongoing and do not have a definite ending.

 

  • Cuando tenía quince años, sus padres murieron.
    • Their parents died when she was 15 years old, so everything happened within this time period.

 

  • Como no tenía suficiente dinero, empezó a trabajar en una panadería que pertenecía a la familia más rica del pueblo.
    • “Tenía” and “pertenecía” are both actions that don’t have a definite ending and that describe the situation. “Empezó” happens in the context which “pertenecía” provides.

 

  • Allí conoció a mi abuelo, que también trabajaba en la panadería.
    • While she was working at the bakery, she met my grandpa. The circumstance here is that he was working at the bakery and she met him there.

 

  • Ellos se enamoraron a primera vista y decidieron casarse muy pronto aunque no tenían mucho dinero.
    • Both “Se enamoraron” and “decidieron” are actions in the past that have been completed. “Tenían” describes their situation at that particular moment.

 

  • En 1943 nació su primer hijo, mi tío Samuel. Dos años más tarde nació mi madre Elena.
    • We always use the preterite form to state a person’s date of birth.

 

  • Por los niños mi abuela ya no podía trabajar más en la fábrica; por eso, empezó a hacer pan casero en casa para venderlo.
    • Both of these sentences are connected in meaning. “Podía” describes the situation at the moment. “Empezó” has a definite ending.

 

  • Como a la gente del pueblo le gustaba mucho el pan de mi abuela, ella vendía muchos panes cada día y ganaba más dinero que en la fábrica.
    • The imperfect form is used in all verbs here since neither of the sentences are completed actions, but rather habitual actions.

 

  • Por eso, mi abuelo dejó la panadería también y empezó a ayudar a mi abuela con su pequeño negocio.
    • This is a sequence of events in which one ended and the other one started. They are all completed actions.

 

  • Años más tarde este negocio creció mucho y se convirtió en la panadería más grande de la región.
    • This is the same situation as above; it describes one completed event after the other.

 


So, there you have it! The grammar rule of imperfect and preterite has been explained. And you’ve been given plenty of examples to see it in context. If you find yourself still making mistakes with this point when speaking, keep in mind that this is one of the most challenging aspects of Spanish grammar, and it will take you some time to really get to grips with it.

 

Keep speaking regardless of your mistakes, and ask your italki teacher to correct you when you make them. Your ultimate goal should be to know the grammar rule so well that you speak it correctly without thinking about it. Although this can only be achieved with consistent practice.

 

Trust me, there will come a time when you will use these two tenses effortlessly. When you do, take a deep breath and give yourself a pat on the back: you made it!

 

Hero image by Atikh Bana (CC0 1.0)