Preterite
What's past is past, but in Spanish what's past may be either preterite or imperfect.
Unlike English, Spanish has two simple past tenses, known as the preterite and the imperfect indicative.
Although the English simple past in a sentence such as "he ate" can be conveyed in Spanish using either the preterite (comió) or the imperfect indicative (comía), the two tenses are not interchangeable.
In general, the preterite is used when speaking of completed action, that is, when the verb refers to an action that has a clear end.
On the other hand, the other past tense is known as an imperfect tense because "imperfect" can also mean "incomplete"
The preterite tells us specifically when an action took place.
The imperfect tells us in general when an action took place
The preterite is used:
The preterite is used for actions that can be viewed as single events.
Ella caminó por el parque.
She walked through the park.
Ellos llegaron a las ocho.
They arrived at eight o'clock.
The preterite is used for actions that were repeated a specific number of times, or occurred during a specific period of time.
Ayer escribí tres cartas.
Yesterday I wrote three letters.
Vivimos allí por cuatro años.
We lived there for four years.
The preterite is used for actions that were part of a chain of events.
Ella se levantó, se vistió, y salió de la casa.
She got up, dressed, and left the house.
The preterite is used to state the beginning or the end of an action.
Empezó a nevar a las ocho de la mañana.
It began to snow at eight in the morning.
The above examples all fall within our general rule for using the preterite:
The preterite is used for past actions that are seen as completed.
To conjugate regular -ar verbs in the preterite, simply drop the ending (-ar) and add one of the following:
é
aste
ó
amos
asteis
aron
To conjugate regular -er and -ir verbs in the preterite, simply drop the ending (-er or -ir) and add one of the following:
í
iste
ió
imos
isteis
ieron
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