Spanish Past Tense is one of the main problems that the student has to face at intermediate level.
Usually past tense is a combination of actions and descriptions and that is why at least two tenses are needed.
There are four past tenses in Spanish ( Pretérito Perfecto , Past Perfect , Preterito Indefinido , Preterit, Preterito Imperfecto , Imperfect and Preterito Pluscuamperfecto , Past Imperfect), being Preterit vs. Imperfect the more difficult ones to differentiate.
More frequent uses:
- Preterit could be defined as the “Action Tense”, thanks to it stories go on and things “happen”. It would be impossible to tell a story without preterits, nothing would happen, it would lack narration. But, on the other hand, it would be possible in Spanish to tell a story in the past using only the Preterit Tense:
- Se levantó, se duchó, se vistió y salió de casa . He woke up, he had a shower, he got dressed and he went out. Imperfect Tense would describe the circumstances that exist around the action told by Preterit Tense. Thus Imperfect finishes off the story with all the important additional information that complete it.
- Se levantó, estaba un poco cansado y por eso se duchó, se vistió y salió de casa . He woke up and had a shower because he was tired, he got dressed and he went out.
Imperfect Tense is like the stage where the action takes place. We can watch a play without stage but not without actors or action. At the same time this stage enables us to understand the plot.
- Another use of Imperfect is to narrate how everyday life used to be. We can find Imperfect Tense with words such as: antes , before, todos los días , everyday, cada lunes , each monday , normalmente , usually, etc.
- Antes vivía en Alemania
- I used to live in Germany or Before I lived in Germany
- When the narration is temporally closed or limited we use the Preterit Tense:
- Viví en Alemania dos años
- I lived in Germany two years
- When two actions are told at the same time we choose Preterit Tense to underline the core one, i.e. the one that modifies the normality of daily life:
- Iba a casa cuando me encontré con Ana.
- I was going home when I met Ana
- When both actions are of the same importance and none of them interrupts the other we use Imperfect Tense:
- Roberto fregaba los platos mientras Sonia recogía la mesa.
- Robert washed the dishes meanwhile Sonia cleaned up the table