How do I know when to use the Preterite tense vs. Imperfect tense?

Question

Both of these tenses relate to the past and, often times, both translate very similarly into English, making it difficult to distinguish the appropriate usage of each.

Answer 1

El pretérito expresa una acción terminada en el pasado, damos información puntual y por lo general usamos marcadores de tiempo como: ayer, anoche, el fin de semana pasado, el año pasado, el verano pasado, en + año (en 1975), hace dos años.

Ejemplo: El fin se semana pasado fui a la playa, nadé, tomé el sol, comí ceviche y por la noche bailamos con mis amigos.

El imperfecto expresa acciones del pasado pero no especifica si terminó o no terminó la acción. Marcadores temporales como: Normalmente, a veces, a menudo, casi siempre, todos los días, siempre. El imperfecto describe, da muchos detalles de un lugar, una persona, un animal, una cosa o ambiente.

Ejemplo: El clima en la playa estaba perfecto, había muchas personas bañándose en la playa, los niños corrían y corrían por todas partes. Una de las familias tenia un perro que jugaba con una pelota que tenía muchos colores! Mientras estaba tomando el sol yo estaba mirándolos y tomando jugo de coco.

Answer 2

The concept of preterite verb tense is used when you want to describe events that happened at a definite time in the past or is still going on e.g last week or a week ago. The imperfect tense is used for events with no specific time period. When you have an action interrupting another action, use preterite for interrupting actions and imperfect for the interrupted.

Answer 3

I think of the Preterite and Imperfect like a stop light. Preterite is RED - the action is complete, has been done a specific number of times or took place at a specific moment of time (yesterday, last night. last week ...) The preterite looks like a regular timeline with various points on it.

The Imperfect is GREEN - it goes. The imperfect was happening. The timeline is a squiggly line because there is no definite stopping place. Imperfect is used with habits (everyday, every year, etc). It translates as was / were doing something or used to do something. It is also used with descriptions, age, time, weather and interrupted actions.

I am available for tutoring if you'd like to continue this discussion.

Regina

Answer 4

The Preterite tense is used for past events that have already been completed entirely. These events must have happened at a specific point in the past and been completed. For example, "I ate yesterday". The word "yesterday" indicates a specific time when the event- "ate"- happened. We also know that the speaker is not still eating. Therefore, in Spanish, we would use the preterite "yo" form of "to eat" - comer - which would be "Yo comí".

The Imperfect tense is used for events that were started in the past, but may be ongoing or otherwise not have ended at any one particular point in time. For example, "When I was young...". You might no longer be young, but there isn't any one particular moment in time when you stopped being young! This event doesn't have a definite start and end point, therefore we must use the Imperfect tense. In Spanish, this is written using the Imperfect "yo" form of "to be" - ser - which would be "Cuando yo era joven...".