Spanish grammar
Spanish Past Tenses
Spanish uses two main simple past tenses: the preterite for completed actions and the imperfect for description, habit, and background. Learners benefit from hearing both in real context, not isolated drill sentences.
Textbook Spanish Past Tenses
The standard forms taught in Spanish courses worldwide, illustrated with real clips from native speakers, not invented examples.
Preterite
Regular preterite endings (-é / -aste / -ó / -amos / -aron) plus the common irregular preterites (fui, dije, hice, vino, tuvo, …)
The preterite names a completed action at a specific point in the past. In real speech it drives narrative: what happened, in what order, to whom.
Imperfect
Regular imperfect endings (-aba / -ía) plus the three irregulars (ser → era, ir → iba, ver → veía)
The imperfect describes the past as setting rather than event: what used to happen, what was happening, what the world was like. Almost always paired with the preterite in real narrative.