(She spoke Chinese with her father yesterday.) Here are some examples of verbs in both of these past tenses-as you compare the sentences, remember that verbs in the preterite happened and ended at a specific time, whereas the imperfect past is used for unspecified durations of time and habitual past actions. Preterite and Past Imperfect ExamplesĪlthough both of these tenses are in the past, verbs have slightly different meanings in the preterite and past imperfect. And vivía (I lived) is in the imperfect tense as well because I lived in Mexico for an ongoing, unspecified amount of time. I used iba instead of fui because “going to the beach” was a routine (or habitual) past action. The second sentence has two instances of the imperfect. In the first sentence, I used the preterite tense because the action (going to the beach) happened once, at a specific time-yesterday. (I used to go to the beach when I lived in Mexico.) Yo iba a la playa cuando vivía en México.
Now let’s look at these two sentences in Spanish, and notice how the meaning slightly changes based on which tense I use: “ I used to go to the beach” requires the past imperfect “ I went to the beach yesterday” would require the preterite tense The Difference Between the Preterite and Past Imperfect Subjectīoth the preterite and past imperfect tenses describe actions that happened in the past.īut the main difference is that the preterite tense describes completed actions that happened at a specific time, whereas the past imperfect tense is used for actions that don’t have a specific ending (such as habitual actions).
Buscar preterite pdf#
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Buscar preterite how to#
past imperfect in Spanish, their conjugations, how to use each and more. The conjugations and usages are different, causing many learners confusion.īut by the time you finish reading this blog post, you’ll know the difference between preterite vs. There are two simple past tenses in Spanish: the preterite and past imperfect. You already know how to build sentences in Spanish, you distinguish between ser and estar, you’ve mastered the present tense and can even use the four porques properly.īut talking about the past might be your first big challenge. Preterite vs Imperfect in Spanish: Differences, Conjugations, Usages and More
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