What’s the difference between the preterite and the imperfect?

Question

This question takes into account the two most frequently used past tenses in Spanish. There are quite a few differences between the two, although both are equally important for telling a story or describing past events.

Answer 1

It's also helpful to think of these tenses like this:

We use the preterite for completed actions in the past. You can think of this as most similar to past tense verbs in English that end in -ed.

We use the imperfect for incomplete actions. You can think of this as most similar to the verb phrases "was + verb(ing)" or "used to + verb" in English.

Answer 2

While they are both past tense, the preterite describes something that happened once, while the imperfect describe something that was happening over time. For example, "My mom called (preterite) me while I was making (imperfect) dinner." The call happened once in a moment of time, while the making of dinner was happening over a period of time.

Answer 3

IMPERFECT

A continuous or repeated action; an action that occurred over a long period of time; an action that was in-progress; age; time

Repeated action:

Todos los lunes, yo comía pizza.

Every Monday, I ate/used to eat pizza.

Age and continuous/repeated action:

Cuando tenía diez años, jugaba al béisbol.

When I was 10 years old, I played baseball.

(The action of playing baseball occurred repeatedly, over a long period of time, when you were 10 years old)

PRETERITE

An single action that occurred and is over; an action that repeated a known number of times; an action with a definite start and end; generally a specific time frame

Definite start and end time frame, single action:

Anoche, yo comí pizza.

Last night, I ate pizza.

Repeated a known number of times:

La semana pasada, fui a la playa con mi amigo dos veces

Last week, I went to the beach twice with my friend two times.

Answer 4

El tiempo Pretérito

Es un tiempo simple del modo de Indicativo

llegué llegamos

llegaste llegaron

llegó

El tiempo Imperfecto

Es un tiempo pasado imperfecto del modo Subjuntivo

llegara o llegase

llegaras o llegases

llegáramos o llegásemos

llegaran o llegasen

Answer 5

The “short” answer is that the preterite talks about completed past actions, while the imperfect talks about actions that were ongoing.

For example:

1. “Yo fui a la tienda ayer” - preterite
2. “Cuando era niña, yo jugaba el fútbol cada semana.” -imperfect