Both tenses refer to the past, but they describe it differently. The preterite is for completed actions. The imperfect is for ongoing situations, habits, and descriptions.
Think of the preterite as a photograph: a snapshot of a single completed action. Think of the imperfect as a video: an ongoing situation, something that kept happening, or the background scene.
When you say "I ate dinner at 8pm," that is a completed event with a clear end point. Preterite. When you say "I used to eat dinner late," that is a repeated habit with no specific end point. Imperfect.
Completed actions with a clear endpoint
Comí a las ocho. (I ate at eight.)
Actions that happened a specific number of times
Llamé tres veces. (I called three times.)
A sequence of events
Llegué, comí y salí. (I arrived, ate, and left.)
Actions that interrupted an ongoing situation
Llegó cuando dormía. (He arrived while I was sleeping.)
Habits or repeated actions in the past
Comía tarde cada noche. (I used to eat late every night.)
Ongoing background situations
Llovía y hacía frío. (It was raining and cold.)
Descriptions of people, places, or things in the past
Era alto y tenía el pelo oscuro. (He was tall and had dark hair.)
Actions in progress when something else happened
Dormía cuando llegó. (I was sleeping when he arrived.)
Time and age in the past
Eran las tres. Tenía diez años. (It was three o'clock. I was ten.)
Certain words and phrases tend to signal which tense to use.
Preterite triggers
ayer (yesterday)
anoche (last night)
el año pasado (last year)
de repente (suddenly)
una vez (once)
por fin (finally)
Imperfect triggers
siempre (always)
todos los días (every day)
a veces (sometimes)
cuando era joven (when I was young)
mientras (while)
generalmente (generally)
The imperfect is actually more regular than the preterite. Only three verbs are irregular in the imperfect: ser, ir, and ver.
| Subject | -ar (hablar) | -er/-ir (comer/vivir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | hablaba | comía / vivía |
| Tú | hablabas | comías / vivías |
| Él / Ella | hablaba | comía / vivía |
| Nosotros | hablábamos | comíamos / vivíamos |
| Vosotros | hablabais | comíais / vivíais |
| Ellos | hablaban | comían / vivían |
Spanish Conjugation Training includes both the preterite and imperfect with full conjugation grids, tense descriptions explaining when each is used, and a quiz mode to test yourself until the forms stick.
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