Spanish 103 - Preterite vs Imperfect in Spanish PRETÉRITO VS IMPERFECTO Spanish With Profe

In this video you will learn about Preterite and Imperfect in Spanish.
These two tenses are used to talk about the past. But they are not interchangeable.

Use the pretérito to talk about completed actions in the past, use it to narrate events in the past: to talk about the beginning of an action and the ending of the action. There are always key words such as: ayer, la semana pasada, etc to use the pretérito. Remember that in the pretérito there are: regular verbs, irregular verbs, stem changing verbs.

Use the imperfecto to talk about repetitive actions in the past, to talk about characteristics, to talk about your age, to provide background information, to describe events. There are always key words such as: siempre, por lo general, todos los días that will help you select the imperfecto. Remember that in the imperfecto there are: only three irregular verbs (ser, ir, ver); regular verbs, and no stem-changing verbs.

When the pretérito and the imperfecto are being used in the same sentence think of the Imperfecto as the continuous action, the ongoing action, the current action that is happening and then the Pretérito will come in to interrupt that continuous time.

Pretérito
-ar=
yo -é
tú -aste
él, ella, usted -ó
nosotros/as -amos
ellos/ellas, ustedes -aron

Pretérito
-er/-ir=
yo -í
tú -iste
él, ella, usted -ió
nosotros/as -imos
ellos/ellas, ustedes -ieron

Most irregular verbs will have the following endings
Pretérito

yo -e
tú -iste
él, ella, usted -o
nosotros/as -imos
ellos/ellas, ustedes -ieon

Imperfecto
ser
yo era
tú eras
él, ella, usted era
nosotros/as éramos
ellos/ellas, ustedes eran

Imperfecto
ir a
yo iba a
tú ibas a
él, ella, usted iba a
nosotros/as íbamos a
ellos/ellas, ustedes iban a

Imperfecto
ver
yo veía
tú veías
él, ella, usted veía
nosotros/as veíamos
ellos, ellas, ustedes veían

Cuando yo dormía, alguien tocó la puerta.
(When I was sleeping, someone knocked on the door.) The imperfecto is "dormía" and the "tocó" is in the pretérito, it is the action that interrupts the ongoing/continuous action of sleeping.

Ayer yo fui al cine. (Yesterday I went to the movies.) Pretérito-time specific.

Ellos siempre iban a las montañas. ( They would always go to the mountains.) Imperfecto-time in general. It is a repetitive action in the past.

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