I am working on this too. But what is really getting me is also when to use present perfect when talking about things in the past. This is a summary/ translation of some rules a teacher gave me that made the most sense! When talking about the past: To tell about actions: (1) That are in process, use the present perfect. He trabajado (2) That finished, use the preterite. Trabajé. *preterite is used with words like “ayer”, “anteayer”, “anoche” or any other adverb referring to a specific time in the past Use the imperfect to describe...... Trabajaba. (1) habitual actions ex. I usually.... (2) people and things in the past (3) Things that are happening at the same time. *if you express the time in the past or tell how old someone was, you need to use imperfect *the imperfect tense is used for past actions which cannot be seen as complete *a sentence with imperfect can be translated into English as “would” “used to” or just as the simple past tense “took, spoke etc.” This struggle is very real!

Good luck, feel free to ask any further question. Greetings from Argentina.

Hi Sarah, Pretérito Perfecto means perfect in the sense that the action is totaly finished in a precise time in the past. "Yo compré estos zapatos el lunes" (I bought). Pretérito imperfecto means that is not perfect, meaning that que action is not yet finished, or it affects the present, or has not a clear duration. "Yo caminaba por esta calle cuando era chico" (I used to walk).

ESTAR "Estar" is used to express that something is temporary (location, condition, etc). It can easily change, and it usually does. "Estoy feliz." - "I'm happy." The speaker describes his/herself as happy. In this sentence, "happy" is the emotion the speaker feels. Emotions are temporary, and be described as a status. This is subject to change; the speaker is happy now, but yesterday they were quite angry or tomorrow they may feel sad. Therefore, "estar" is used. SER "Ser" is used for defining traits (profession, characteristics/qualities, nationality, time, etc). Do NOT think of it as permanent; it may be sometimes but not all the time. "Soy feliz." - "I'm happy." The translation is identical to the previous one, but it has a significantly different meaning. Thinking of the use of "ser", you can guess what this one means. One of the uses for "ser" is for expressing characteristics (like personality traits or physical characteristics). "Happy" acts as a personality trait in this sentence; he/she is generally happy. So for clarity, one could translate it as "I'm a happy person" or "I'm happy in general". SER OR ESTAR? When deciding which to use, ask yourself: "does the description indicate state (mood, current situation, etc)?" If so, use "estar". If not, chances are you should use "ser". Also, remember that although things like profession or religion CAN change, they always use "ser", because they identify/define a person and they aren't variable like emotions or locations.

PRETERITE You use the preterite when the action has a clear duration. "Llovió toda la semana." - "It rained all week." In this example, the preterite for "llover" is used because the raining had a clear duration: all week. "Miré la lluvia por un momento.." - I watched the rain for a moment.. In this example, the preterite is used because the speaker identified the amount of time in which he/she was watching the rain: a moment. It was a very short amount of time. The preterite tells you it was too short to have to be addressed. IMPERFECT You use the imperfect when the action does NOT have a clear duration. This means that there is missing information; the time it started or the time it ended is unidentified. Both may be unidentified. All that the imperfect tense tells you for certain is that it happened in the past. "Miraba la lluvia por un momento.." - "I was watching the rain for a moment.." This example is nearly identical to the previous one, except that this one uses the subjunctive. In this sentence, the speaker is essentially expressing that they were watching the rain for a moment, but they are not sure as to when they started watching the rain in the first place. This suggests that the speaker lost track of time; they sense that it has been a short while, but they really aren't sure because they forgot when it started. It also can suggest that something interrupted their watching the rain (ex. "I was watching the rain, but then I heard a loud noise.") "Miraba la lluvia mucho." - "I watched the rain a lot." This example refers to an indefinite time period in the past. It could be the course of days, weeks, or months. They may or may not watch the rain anymore. PRETERITE OR IMPERFECT? If you don't know which to use, ask yourself: "do I have a fair idea as to when the action started and ended?" If so, use the preterite. If not, use the subjunctive. Context helps. I like to think of it this way: preterite = event, subjunctive = process