Preterite Puns

The present, imperfect, and conditional tenses follow a very similar pattern that makes remembering them pretty easy.

Present tense

Imperfect tense

Conditional tense

The preterite tense, on the other hand, bucks much of this trend, but does maintain some of the pattern. For example, the 'n' at the end of the ellos conjugation, the 'amos' for the nosotros conjugation, and the 'as' associated with the tu conjugation.

Preterite tense

Basically, what I want to get at is this: is there an underlying logic to the preterite tense that would explain why the conjugations aren't in line with those of the imperfect, conditional, and present tenses, or is it simply something that must be memorized?

*Apologies for the lack of accents.

Edit for formatting

Edit 2: I am capable of memorizing the preterite conjugations, but am also genuinely and personally interested in why the preterite endings are so different from those of other tenses. Maybe this is a better question for a linguistics subreddit.

What is the difference between these 3 tenses?

Is the preterite simply describing the "past tense" of a completed action? If so, why not just use the perfect tense?

I’m trying to learn when to use the preterite tense and when to use the imperfect but I keep confusing when to use each form. For example if I were to say “she was always tall” would I use fue or era or “she had red hair” is that tenía or tuvo? Thanks in advance!

Side note: this is not homework, this is just me wanting to understand the difference because I’m in my second year of uni studying languages and somehow this is just still not clicking.

Hi all,

I am currently learning Spanish on Duolingo, and am confused by when to use preterite, and when to use imperfect, e.g.

'A veces los niños jugaban con el maestro' is translated to 'Sometimes the children used to play with the teacher'

Wouldn't it be very similar if we say 'A veces los niños jugaron con el maestro'? Since both 'jugaban' and 'jugaron' seem to refer to past tense.

Please advise. Thanks!

Hello everyone! I am currently trying to translate a short passage about ancient history which frequently mentions things like "these people made pots from clay" or "this site was occupied for centuries." I am inclined to use the imperfect tense in these cases ("esta gente hacía las ollas de arcilla" or "este sitio estaba ocupado por siglos") but I am not sure if that is correct. When talking about practices/events so far in the past, would the preterite be used instead because these things have definitely come to an end? Advice is much appreciated!

I understand that in general the imperfect is an ongoing action in the past while preterite is a one time event but hoping someone can help me distinguish when to use which in some specific scenarios.

Describing Your Day Would you use ¿cómo estuvo tu día? or ¿cómo estaba tú día? Or alternatively if ser is supposed to be used for this question instead of estar then would it be fue or era?

Saber/Conocer If I wanted to say “did you know” would I use the preterite or imperfect? Does it change by what the know refers to?

Example: Did you know (a fact) = supiste or sabías? Did you know (a person) = conociste or conocías?

Pensar Similar to saber/conocer but if I wanted to say I thought, what type of thought would warrant the preterite vs imperfect?

Example: I thought I saw you = pensé (right?) I thought about it for a while = pensía (right?)

Feelings/Moods Would describing this change on the context of the feeling and timeline

Example: I felt bad (single moment in time) = sentí? I felt bad for a while = sentía?

Tener/Other If I wanted to describe having something would it be tuve or tenía?

Example: I had reason to believe = tuve or tenía? I had a car when I was little = tuve or tenía? He was right = tuvo or tenía?

Thanks so much in advance!

I've read that there are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect, but I can't seem to find a definitive list of irregular verbs in the preterite tense. Can you please help?

Fue or era?

Hi there guys,

I’m quite new to this forum, but I was wondering if anyone could explain this to me.

Preterite- If there is a time signal at the start of a sentence, for example ayer, la semana pasada...

Imperfect- No time signal or definitive time period in which the action is done, for example a menudo, generalmente, varias veces...

I get the imperfect tense is the descriptive tense, but what does that mean. Also, if I start recalling an event in the past do I use just one tense or in which cases do I use a combination.

Example 1

Solía aprender el francés en la escuela, pero no me gustaba aprenderlo. Esto era porque, lo encontraba muy difícil y aburrido. Pasaba muchas horas leyendo libros y escribiendo las mismas frases para alcanzar mi nivel de francés. Ahora sé que, para mi estos métodos no son los mejores para aprender un idioma. Así que con el español, uso los métodos diferentes en comparación de mi aprendizaje del francés.

Example 2

Los últimos días estaba muy cansado, porque tenía muchas cosas que hacer. Por ejemplo la semana pasada, salí con mis amigos, pinté mi habitación, visité mis abuelos y he tenido que trabajar. Esto es porque en mi trabajo hay muchas personas que son enfermas.

Thank you for the help in advance and I hope I was clear in my post.

French does, in fact have a preterite; for pouvoir, for example it's pus, pus, put, pûmes, pûtes, purent(feel free to correct me, french speakers). Let me back up: A lot of the time, I see french lessons telling you to just use the past participle for a simple past, but why use that when (according to Wikipedia) there is a much-easier-to-use preterite?

I don’t know how I only just realized this, but now I’m confused. Looking at a chart and for nosotros in the present they have: hablamos, comemos, abrimos. Then for preterite: hablamos, comimos, abrimos. The er verbs are the only ones that change?? How do you know which tense is being used for ar and ir if it doesn’t change?

I am doing VERY poorly on my practice homework in my second semester Spanish class. I just can't figure out how to apply preterite vs imperfect. I understand the basic rules, but I am still failing to understand when something is complete or not. Is there a trick I can use? I already tried the YouTube strategy of "did" vs "was doing" but that didn't work for me because it seems like either one could fit most any sentence with very few exceptions.

Am I missing something here?

Also, I did look at past posts on this topic, but none of them made any sense to me. Thank you in advance for your help!

All my grammar books say "durante" triggers pretérito indefinido (simple past form) but is it always the case? For example, in the following conversation if I say era instead of fue is it gramatically wrong?

A: ¿Cuánto duró la relación más larga que has tenido?

B: 5 años.

A: Durante esos 5 años, ¿cómo era tu vida sexual con tu pareja?

Is it basically preterite for what happened and imperfect for what was happening?

Like preterite for what the event was and imperfect for what was happening at the event?

Understanding it comes in waves but that’s basically how I have come to understand it?

I’m doing a presentation tomorrow about my strange semester at college due to covid-19. I want to say that we “had to do” a lot of different things because of the pandemic, like participating in a universal quarantine.

Instinctively, I want to say “teníamos que participar en una cuarentena universal” but grammatically, I think it should actually be “tuvimos que participar en una cuarentena universal”

Can anyone tell me which is correct? And also any tips on understanding imperfect/preterite better? I simply cannot with those tenses.

Muchas gracias mis amigos ❤️

Edit: if it is in fact supposed to be preterite, should the rest of my description of the semester also be in preterite because all of this happened in one event in the past that has ended?

I know some verbs in past tense do not follow the regular stem changing rule such as tener and hicer but I’m wondering if there’s a full list or a rule to know when a verb is going to have a different stem change in preterite/ past tense?

I just failed a test that I have studied for, I still need help! Any tips on imperfect vs preterite?

Hi there,

It's my understanding that if we talk about a past event with a specific part to it (i.e. the sandwich) (Mientras estaba en el aeropuerto, comí un bocadillo) we mostly use imperfect then preterite with the specific. And for something without a specific thing to talk about, it´s just imperfect used twice. Mientras estaba en el aeropuerto, comía. But I've also seen imperfect used in both parts of the sentence even with a specific item. Is there any rule to this at all or is it region specific? Sorry if the question is a bit unclear, I had trouble wording this.

Hello everyone.

I'm beginner of studying German.

I study 'preterite' and 'past participle' recently and have a question.

What is the difference between 'preterite' and 'past participle'?

Which situation people use 'preterite' and 'past participle'?

Does it sound odd? Does it take away from the meaning of the sentence?

Is this sentence correct when writing in past tense and expressing a possibility?

She (could/might) be a spy.

So I´ve recently seen an example,which was super clear and eye-opening.

As an example: Tuve que comprar pilas. Why Tuve and not Tenia?

DocRudy asked : As an example: Tuve que comprar pilas. Why Tuve and not Tenia?

And VGM123 answered :

Either can work, depending on the context.

Fui a la tienda porque tenía que comprar pilas.

"I went to the store because I had to buy batteries."

Llegué tarde porque tuve que comprar pilas.

"I arrived late because I had to buy batteries."

The first sentence describes the event as ongoing. Your need to buy batteries was not fulfilled by the time you went to the store.

The second sentence describes the event as concluded. Your need to buy batteries was fulfilled by the time you arrived late.

This is the heart of the imperfect/preterite distinction. The imperfect puts you in the middle of the event whereas the preterite does not.

Now I do get the difference between those sentences,the imperfect sends an interlocutor to the middle of the situation that is being discussed. On the other hand,the preterite sends an interlocutor outside of the situation,because by some moment it´s already finished.

But I can´t get one thing - look at this example : Llegué tarde porque tuve que comprar pilas. As I get it,´´tuve que´´ was before ´´Llegué tarde´´. But isn´t it past perfect? I mean if it was before an action in the past,then it must be past perfect!

When should you use past participles vs preterite?

I was studying for Spanish on a website when I noticed a sentence that said "Ya he te dicho que no voy a ir" and I felt like that would be unnatural to use in conversation, why would you not say "Ya te dijé no voy a ir"? Is this common in conversation?

When I think of past participles I think of more broad things like I have done __ before in the past such as "He visto la película" "He estado a __"

Estaba estudiando por la clase de español en un citio de web cuando ví una oración que se dice "Ya he te dicho que no voy a ir" y me siento que sería raro usar en conversación, porque no dice "Ya te dijé no voy a ir"? Es común en conversación?

Cuando yo pienso de past participles pienso en ideas generales como He hecho algun en el pasasdo como "He visto la película"

-I put my post in English and Spanish to practice so I hope that's okay. Thanks :)

-Also what does the flair R&RR mean?

Hi, everyone! Hope you're all doing well!

We've summarized the preterite and the imperfect in previous posts. Now, let's summarize the verbs that we have previously discussed that supposedly have meaning changes in the preterite but actually don't.

Ser/Estar:

• Fue and estuvo are for acquired or completed states.
• Era and estaba are for habitual or ongoing states.

Saber:

• Supe refers to the beginning of or entirety of the state of knowing something.
• Sabía refers to a habitual or ongoing state of knowing something.

Conocer:

• Conocí refers to the beginning of or entirety of being acquainted with someone.
• Conocía refers to a habitual or ongoing state of being acquainted with someone.

Tener:

• Tuve signifies the beginning of or entirety of having something.
• Tenía signifies a habitual or ongoing state of having something.

Querer:

• Quise signals the beginning of or completion of a desire.
• Quería signals a habitual or ongoing desire.

Poder (which I didn't cover in my previous posts):

• Pude signals the beginning of or culmination of the ability to do something. In the former case, you were able to do something once something else happened. In the latter case, you were able to do something, and you did it. (Or, you couldn't do it if "pude" is negative.)
• Podía signals a habitual or ongoing state of being able to do something. In other words, your ability to do something wasn't limited or completed.

As you can see, these verbs don't actually change meaning in the preterite. The only thing that changes is the aspect of the verb.

In my experience, it's easier to treat these pairs of verbs as verbs that have the same meaning, with aspect being the only difference. Using different definitions for the same verb might cause confusion.

The same goes for all verbs in Spanish. These particular verbs are really no different from other verbs in terms of aspect.

¡Espero que les haya gustado esta lección! (I hope that you all have enjoyed this lesson!)

I understand the basics of when to use preterite and imperfect, but I get stuck when I have to describe what happened during a vacation.

For example, let's say I wanted to talk about the time I spent a week in New York.

If I were to talk about anything that happened a lot/daily during my time in New York, would preterite or imperfect be better? Like "I wore a coat every day" or "I danced with my friends every night."

So I had a test in class and my teacher marked off a point because I said "todos los [ancient] Romanos estaban locos" because I should have said "estuvieron" apparently. Don't worry about the out of context statement lol, I thought that descriptions were supposed to be in imperfect? I guess I'm kind if confused about the whole past-tense description situation.

¿Dónde estuviste anoche?

Is a description in the past, so I would assume imperfect. But it also is completed so I can see why they chose the preterite here as well.

La comida estaba buena.

Again a description in the past so I see why the imperfect is used. However, the meal is finished so I can see the preterite being used here as well, going along with the first sentence.

I’m doing a presentation tomorrow about my strange semester at college due to covid-19. I want to say that we “had to do” a lot of different things because of the pandemic, like participating in a universal quarantine.

Instinctively, I want to say “teníamos que participar en una cuarentena universal” but grammatically, I think it should actually be “tuvimos que participar en una cuarentena universal”

Can anyone tell me which is correct? And also any tips on understanding imperfect/preterite better? I simply cannot with those tenses.

Muchas gracias mis amigos ❤️

Edit: if it is in fact supposed to be preterite, should the rest of my description of the semester also be in preterite because all of this happened in one event in the past that has ended?