1.12: Sección 2 - Pretérito e imperfecto

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The preterit and imperfect allow the speaker to refer to actions that took place in the past. Knowing when to use these tenses will allow you to narrate stories, and this is an important aspect of getting to know others; we want to be able to share stories of events that have happened in our lives.

In this review, we will assume that you are already familiar with the forms of the preterit and imperfect in Spanish. If you need to review, then take the time to review the links and videos below for more guidance. It may be worthwhile to do a few of the exercises in order to check how well you remember the forms.

I. Para revisar las formas

Pretérito

Conjugations of the regular and irregular verbs (Colby College)

If you want to hear the pronunciation of the forms or find that watching a video is more helpful, click on the link to the right.

Imperfecto

Conjugation of the imperfect

Contrasting the preterit and imperfect

Learning the distinction between the preterit and imperfect can be a frustrating experience for students learning Spanish. There are many lists that provide the contexts for their use, and just when you have that list memorized and think you understand everything, along comes an example that doesn't seem to follow the rules. It makes non-native speakers believe that there must be some trick that you can learn that will settle the matter once and for all.

It can be helpful to think about the past by looking at the diagram below. The past is everything behind the present, and that can be thought of either as actions that are completed at a moment in time (X) or completed in a time period (a time period between two points in the past). Imagine that a friend asks you in the present (right now) if you want to have lunch.

Ejemplo\(\PageIndex{1}\)

Amiga: ¿Quieres almorzar?

Tú: Comí un sandwich a la 1:00 y ahora no tengo hambre.

The action of eating lunch is now completed/finished/done with for you. This happened at a point of time in the past (an X on the line)

Now imagine that one of your parents has emailed you to ask if you are all set to come home this weekend for your grandmother's birthday.

Ejemplo \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Madre: Hija, ¿está todo listo para tu viaje a casa este fin de semana para celebrar el cumpleaños de tu abuela?

Tú: Sí, mamá. No te preocupes, ya busqué el horario de trenes, hice la reservación y compré mi boleto.

If you look again at the graphic above, you can think of each X as representing the series of actions that you completed in order to be able to make it home for granny's birthday party! Those actions are now checked off on your "to-do list".

The imperfect refers to something in the past that doesn't occur at a point in time, but rather it's an action, description, feeling, or thought that moves through time. It has no set temporal boundaries and it just doesn't seem to be finished from the standpoint of the speaker hence the wiggly line running in the past. Returning to the scenario above with a friend, rather than just indicate that you ate a sandwich, you might provide more details.

Ejemplo \(\PageIndex{3}\)

Amiga: ¿Quieres almorzar?

Tú: Tenía mucha hambre y pues fui al café nuevo con Mario a las 12:00. Había una selección muy variada de sandwiches y sopas.
Toda la comida estaba muy fresca y deliciosa. Conocimos al dueño que era simpático.

You've provided the listener with more information about the event by going back and forth between the preterit and the imperfect.

Try it out

Why was the imperfect used in some of the sentences above? Why was the preterit used in other examples?

Answer: If you answered that the imperfect occurred in sentences that were descriptive and not occurring at a point in time, then you are right! The preterit on the other hand described a completed action. Remember that the verb conocer in this context means met. If you think about the meaning of the verb "to know," and then think about this verb being limited to a point in time in the preterit, then it's easy to understand why the meaning changes to "met."

General uses of the preterit and imperfect

Preterit	Imperfect
Explicit duration or number of times of occurences Caminé por dos horas Visité el museo diez veces para mi clase de arte.	Ongoing actions with no beginning or end point Siempre comía mariscos cuando visitaba Perú
Interrupting Action Cantaba el coro, cuando sonó el móvil.	Interrupted action Corría el niño cuando chocó conmigo.
Sequence of actions Me levanté, me cepillé los dientes, y me vestí	Describing what things were like Era un día lluvioso Llevaba una falda negra
An event viewed as a completed whole Cuando visité mi abuelo, me preparó una torta de tres leches. Estuve enfermo todo el día.	To express age or time Tenía 10 años Eran las seis
	Indirect discourse (introduced by a verb of communication) Le dije que tenía que venir conmigo Me preguntó si quería almorzar.

A practicar

Actividad 1

(Exercises adapted from Jenny Ciciliano and Lisa Notman from Portland State University. (CC BY-NC 4.0)

1. (devolver) Cuando era joven mi madre y yo teníamos una rutina: los lunes elegíamos nuevos libros en la biblioteca, los leíamos cada noche durante la semana y los __________ a la biblioteca los viernes.

2. (trabajar) Pues, no hice mucho ayer. __________ en mi jardín un rato y después leí en mi hamaca.

3. (ir) No __________ a tu fiesta anoche porque tuve que estudiar para un examen en mi clase de ciencia. ¡Lo siento!

4. (despedir) Ha sido una semana dura para Joel. El sábado pasado la empresa lo __________ y está preocupado.

5. (viajar) Ayer, la familia __________ a México para sus vacaciones.

6. (tener) Estaba caminando en la calle cuando, de repente, un carro __________ un accidente delante de mí.

7. (tener) Siempre me gustaba ir a la casa de mis abuelos porque mi abuelo __________ una colección grande de la revista National Geographic y la leíamos juntos.

8. (poner) Mi amor, ¿dónde __________ las llaves? Quiero ir de compras y no puedo encontrarlas.

9. (pasar) ¿Por qué estás llorando? ¿Qué __________?

10. (pensar) Cuando era joven, __________ que siempre iba a vivir en California cerca de mis papás, pero he estado viviendo aquí en Colombia por tres años y no puedo imaginar volver a vivir en los Estados Unidos.

Answer

1. devolvíamos

2. trabajé

3. fui

4. despidió

5. viajó

6 tuvo

7. tenía

8. pusiste

9. pasó

10. pensaba

*There are additional auto-correcting exercises in the workbook in Canvas.

Preterit and imperfect in narratives

When you tell a story about something, you will have to move between the preterit and imperfect. The preterit will tell your listener "what happened next" and the imperfect will allow them to create a more detailed and imaginative mental picture about that story. Imagine what it's like when you go to see a movie or a play in a theater. While you're settling in, there are a lot of actions happening simultaneously that don't have a start or endpoint: people are walking in and looking for their seats, others are chatting, there's some music playing, the lights are dim, there's the smell of popcorn in the air. There's a good deal of descriptive background information to set the scene, but nothing actually happened! In fact, a good question to ask yourself to determine if the verb should be in the preterit or imperfect is, "What happened next?" If the next bit of the story answers that question and advances the narrative to its conclusion, then you will use the preterit.

Look at the story below and note the use of the preterit and imperfect.
(Story adapted from Jenny Ciciliano and Lisa Notman from Portland State University: CC BY-NC 4.0)

Cuento	Explicación
Cuando estudiaba en Lima, vivía en un apartamento pequeño cerca del centro	Imperfecto: description of what it was like
Me gustaba caminar al café, y siempre practicaba mi español con los trabajadores allí.	Imperfecto: Habitual action in the past
Un día, mientras caminaba al café, escuché música de Pearl Jam.	Imperfecto: action in progress; Pretérito: interrupting action
La música venía del café.	Imperfecto: action in progress; It doesn't answer the question, "What happened next?"
Cuando llegué allí, le pregunté a mi amigo por qué ponía Pearl Jam.	Pretérito: completed action; imperfect: indirect discourse
Él pensaba que me gustaba la música en inglés por ser estadounidense,	Imperfecto: description, ongoing
y Pearly Jam era su grupo estadounidense favorito.	description, ongoing

A practicar

There are several micro-cuentos below that will help you practice the preterit and imperfect in narratives.

Actividad 2

Anoche (jugar) al fútbol y luego (ir) a comer con unos amigos. Después de comer, (caminar) a mi casa. (Ser) una tarde bonita.

Answer

Jugué; fui; caminé; Fue

This is a series of completed actions. While the last sentence is descriptive, it is likely that the speaker is using it to sum up the entire experience and views it as a completed whole. There is a clue in the use of "anoche."

(Story adapted from Jenny Ciciliano and Lisa Notman from Portland State University: CC BY-NC 4.0

Actividad 3

Cuando yo (estar) en la escuela secundaria, mi familia (vivir) en una casa blanca. La casa (ser) muy pequeña y no me (gustar) mucho. (Estar) lejos de la escuela, y mis amigos no (poder) visitarme.

Answer

estaba; vivía; era; gustaba; estaba; podían

There's a bit of a clue here with the speaker starting the mini-story by talking about life when he was in high school. There's no actual beginning and end to anything, and a lot of description rather than actions.

(Story adapted from Jenny Ciciliano and Lisa Notman from Portland State University: CC BY-NC 4.0)