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AS / A2 Gramática

Pretérito vs Imperfecto

As you are aware, in Spanish there are two main past tenses (not counting the perfect tenses), whereas English only has one. So, no wonder you get confused!

•The preterite is used mainly to refer to actions that are finished and complete in the past (something that happened just once). That means that it often follows phrases like el martes pasado, hace un año, ayer por la tarde, etc. For example:

• El martes pasado salí a cenar con mis amigos.
• Hace un año visité a mi familia en España.
• Ayer llovió a cántaros.

•The imperfect, however, is used to refer to something ongoing in the past (something that was happening or used to happen). This meas that it is mainly going to be used in narrative contexts, often in conjunction with the preterite. For example (the imperfect is in bold):

• Leía cuando sonó el teléfono
• Las tropas avanzaban hacia el frente a la vez que los generales planeaban el próximo ataque.
• Yo no sabía que Luis no podía jugar.
• No quise hablar con el porque no tenía una cita.

•The easiest way to remember when to use which is this: the imperfect sets the scene and the preterite tells you what happened. For example (again, the imperfect is in bold):

• Leía un periódico cuando recibió un texto a su móvil.
• Se quedó sin gasolina mientras conducía al supermercado.

You can do some exercises on using the imperfect in conjunction with the preterite here.