Spanish grammar
Spanish Past Tenses
Spanish has two main past tenses: the preterite and the imperfect. The preterite is for one finished action. The imperfect is for something that happened many times, or for the background of a story. It helps to hear both together.
Class Spanish Past Tenses
These are the forms taught in Spanish classes all over the world. We show them with real videos, not made-up ones.
Preterite
Regular preterite endings (-é / -aste / -ó / -amos / -aron), plus common irregular verbs (fui, dije, hice, vino, tuvo, ...)
The preterite is for one finished action at one time in the past. It tells the story: what happened, in what order, and to who.
Imperfect
Regular imperfect endings (-aba / -ía), plus the three irregular verbs (ser → era, ir → iba, ver → veía)
The imperfect shows the background of the story, not one event. It tells what used to happen, or what things were like. It is often used together with the preterite.