Talking about the past
Choosing a past event or its background
Choosing preterite or imperfect
Use the preterite to tell what happened, and the imperfect to describe what was happening or used to happen.
Endings refresher
Imperfect
Remove -ar, -er or -ir. The imperfect endings are the same for -er and -ir verbs.
| Person | -ar ending | -er / -ir ending |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -aba | -ía |
| tú | -abas | -ías |
| él / ella / usted | -aba | -ía |
| nosotros / nosotras | -ábamos | -íamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -abais | -íais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aban | -ían |
hacer → hac- + -ía → yo hacía
- Hacer is regular in the imperfect, even though it has irregular forms in other tenses: hago, hice, haré.
- Yo and él / ella / usted share the same imperfect ending. Keep the accent in every -ía form and in nosotros -ábamos.
- These charts use tú. Vosotros / vosotras is mainly used in Spain; ustedes uses the final row. Vos forms vary by region.
Preterite
For regular verbs, remove -ar, -er or -ir and add the person ending.
| Person | -ar ending | -er / -ir ending |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -í |
| tú | -aste | -iste |
| él / ella / usted | -ó | -ió |
| nosotros / nosotras | -amos | -imos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -asteis | -isteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -aron | -ieron |
comer → com- + -í → yo comí
- Keep the accents: compré and compró refer to different people. Irregular stems use different endings.
- These charts use tú. Vosotros / vosotras is mainly used in Spain; ustedes uses the final row. Vos forms vary by region.
Irregular preterite
Common strong preterites use a special stem plus these endings. Hacer uses hic-, except hizo.
| Person | Usual ending | Hacer |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -e | hice |
| tú | -iste | hiciste |
| él / ella / usted | -o | hizo |
| nosotros / nosotras | -imos | hicimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -isteis | hicisteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -ieron | hicieron |
hacer → hic- + -e → yo hice
- Other stems include tuv-, estuv-, pud-, pus- and quis-. These forms do not take the regular yo / él written accents.
- Stems ending in j take -eron in the final row: decir → dijeron. Ser and ir instead use fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron.
- These charts use tú. Vosotros / vosotras is mainly used in Spain; ustedes uses the final row. Vos forms vary by region.
The pattern
- Preterite presents an event as a whole: Anoche cociné la cena (Last night I cooked dinner).
- Imperfect sets an ongoing scene: Cocinaba cuando sonó el teléfono (I was cooking when the phone rang).
- Imperfect also describes habits: De niña, cocinaba con mi abuela (As a child, I used to cook with my grandmother).
Cocinaba cuando sonó el teléfono.
I was cooking when the phone rang.
Why it works: Cocinaba sets the scene: cooking was already in progress. Sonó tells you what happened during it.
Notice the difference
Anoche cociné la cena.
Last night I cooked dinner.
Why it works: Cociné presents making dinner as a whole event, rather than showing it in progress.
One thing to watch for
Duration alone does not decide the tense. Trabajé todo el día (I worked all day) is a long event presented as a whole.