Spanish has two main past tenses that students use often: the preterite and the imperfect. This cheat sheet helps you choose the correct tense and form common verbs quickly. It is useful for writing narratives, answering reading questions, and describing past events clearly.
Knowing the difference between completed actions and background descriptions is essential for accurate Spanish.
Key Facts
- Use the preterite for completed past actions, single events, beginnings, endings, and sequences, as in Ayer estudié.
- Regular -ar preterite endings are é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron, as in hablé, hablaste, habló.
- Regular -er and -ir preterite endings are í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron, as in comí, comiste, comió.
- Use the imperfect for ongoing actions, repeated past habits, descriptions, age, time, weather, feelings, and background information.
- Regular -ar imperfect endings are aba, abas, aba, ábamos, abais, aban, as in hablaba, hablabas, hablaba.
- Regular -er and -ir imperfect endings are ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían, as in comía and vivía.
- The three main irregular imperfect verbs are ir: iba, ver: veía, and ser: era.
- Common irregular preterite stems include tener: tuv-, estar: estuv-, poder: pud-, poner: pus-, hacer: hic-, querer: quis-, venir: vin-, and decir: dij-.
Vocabulary
- Preterite
- The Spanish past tense used for completed actions or events that happened at a specific point in time.
- Imperfect
- The Spanish past tense used for ongoing, repeated, or descriptive actions in the past.
- Habitual action
- An action that happened repeatedly in the past, often translated with used to or would.
- Completed action
- An action that started and ended in the past and is often expressed with the preterite.
- Verb ending
- The part added to a verb stem to show the subject, tense, and sometimes mood.
- Irregular verb
- A verb that does not follow the standard conjugation pattern for its tense.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using the preterite for past habits is wrong when the action happened repeatedly. Use the imperfect for ideas like Cada verano nadaba or Cuando era niño jugaba.
- Using the imperfect for a single completed event is wrong when the action happened once and ended. Use the preterite for sentences like Ayer compré un libro.
- Forgetting accent marks in preterite forms changes accuracy and can confuse tense or meaning. Write hablé, comí, and vivió with the correct accents.
- Treating ser, ir, and ver as regular imperfect verbs is wrong because they are irregular. Use era, iba, and veía instead of forms like seraba or iba with the wrong pattern.
- Choosing tense only by English translation can be misleading because was walking can mean background action or interrupted action. Look at the purpose of the verb in the sentence.
Practice Questions
- 1 Conjugate hablar in the preterite for yo, tú, and ellos.
- 2 Conjugate comer in the imperfect for nosotros and ella.
- 3 Choose the correct form: Ayer nosotros (fuimos / íbamos) al cine a las ocho.
- 4 Explain why the imperfect is better than the preterite in the sentence Cuando era pequeño, jugaba en el parque todos los días.