Severn Spanish

Preterite vs. imperfect II

 

Review

Be sure you are comfortable with the conjugations for both the preterite and imperfect, as well as the more common irregulars in each tense. Also review the basic usage information in Preterite I/II and Imperfect II.

 

General remarks

Choosing between the preterite and imperfect is one of the most challenging things you will learn in Spanish. It is so difficult partly because in English we do not have two past tenses like the preterite and imperfect, and partly because it is a little bit fuzzy and challenging even for native speakers. The point is, don’t get frustrated because it is hard.  Allow yourself to make mistakes.

 

Before talking about specific uses of each tense, I want to comment briefly on the general feelng you should get when you use one versus the other. The preterite is used for actions that took place and were completed in the past. For instance, Fuimos al parque means “We went to the park.” We already went and the action is over. The imperfect tense, on the other hand, is used for actions viewed as in progress in the past. The sentence above, but in the imperfect, reads Íbamos al parque, and means, “We were going to the park.” Usually, you would not say the second sentence unless the action of going to the park was interrupted by something else: “We were going to the park when I lost my shoe.” This would translate as Íbamos al parque cuando perdí mi zapato. Notice that the second verb, perder, is in the preterite, not the imperfect.

 

Telling a Story

If you think about it, whenever you talk about the past, you’re telling a story, however boring it may be. So let’s try thinking about the preterite and imperfect in the context of a story. To make this easier, we’ll have an imaginary character who we can call Marco. We will go through some events in Marco’s life and determine which tense should be used where.

 

One-time events

Things that happen once and can be confined to a specific time or time period are spoken about with the preterite. Examples of such events include:

• Marco nació en Agosto. (“Marco was born in August.” Marco was born on a specific day and time.)

• Marco estudió en Madrid durante dos años. (“Marco studied in Madrid for two years.” There is a specific time period during which he studied.)

• Su mamá le compró una chaqueta para su cumpleaños. (“His mom bought him a jacket for his birthday.” She bought him a jacket at a specific time.)

 

Continuous and repeating events

Some events do not have specified time periods, or are repeated multiple times. For this kind of thing, you should use the imperfect.

• Marco era un bebé lindo. (“Marco was a cute baby.” There is no definite time at which he stopped being a cute baby. Another way to think about the imperfect (although it is not foolproof) is to try to translate the sentence using “used to.” If it makes sense, the imperfect is probably the way to go. Here, we can say, “Marco used to be a cute baby.”)

• Marco estudiaba en Madrid. (“Marco studied in Madrid.” You may be confused by this one. It looks almost exactly like the example from the preterite. But notice that this one does not have a specific time period attached. We can translate it as “Marco used to study in Madrid,” and it still makes perfect sense. When the duration of an event is not specific, use the imperfect.)

• Marco visitaba a su abuelo todos los días. (“Marco visited his grandfather every day.” Note that this is a repeating event; it happened every day. Therefore, use the imperfect.)

 

Background events and interruptions

Sometimes, you may want to talk about something that happened in the middle of something else — “I was eating lunch when the police broke down the door.” To do this, you need to separate the actions into two categories: background events, the things that were interrupted by something else, and interruptions, the events that, well, interrupted whatever had been going on. The background event will be in the imperfect, and the interruption will be in the preterite.

• Marco comía cuando la policía llegó. (“Marco was eating when the police arrived.”)

• Marco leía el diario cuando su mamá lo llamó. (“Marco was reading the newspaper when his mom called him.”)

 

Emotions

Emotions are almost always handled with the imperfect, because they don’t really fit neatly into a specific time period. However, if you are talking about becoming a particular emotion, you might want the preterite.

• Marco estaba muy contento. (“Marco was very happy.”)

• Marco se entristeció. (“Marco became sad.”)

 

Time and weather

The imperfect is used for time because, when you talk about time in the past, you talk about it as being in progress: “It was five o’clock” becomes “Eran las cinco.” Time in the past works exactly the same as time in the present in terms of naming the hours. The only difference is that you will replace es/son with era/eran.

Weather, too, is handled with the imperfect because you typically talk about weather being in progress: Llovía mucho means “It was raining a lot.” However, if the weather is starting, stopping, or confined to a specific time period, use the preterite: Empezó a llover a las cuatro (“It began to rain at four”).