In order to conjugate (transform) a regular verb into the preterite tense, it’s quite simple – just like with the imperfect tense, you simply drop the ‘-ar’ ending and replace it with the appropriate Preterite Suffix. ⭐ ‘La semana pasada, salí a caminar por el parque durante 30 minutos.’ Preterite Endings For ‘-ar’ Verbs Therefore, if you were to translate this into Spanish, you would use the Preterite Tense. This sentence offers a clear timeframe for the event – going for a walk in the park – as you declare when the event took place, last week, and how long for, 30 minutes.
⭐ ‘Last week, I went for a walk in the park for 30 minutes.’ To put that a little more simply, in English you could say: When it comes to the Preterite tense, we’re talking about actions (expressed as verbs) that have already been performed, but which have a clear start and a clear end point that are distinguishable in what you’ve said. What Is The Spanish Preterite Tense? (English Context) If you can, memorize their six possible usages. As far as the imperfect tense goes, for now, you only need to remember ser, ver and ir are different. VerbĪs with most languages, there are a couple of verbs (include reflexive verbs) that fall outside the general rules for tenses, which is frustrating for beginners. Remember, AR verbs follow their own set of rules and endings, whilst ER and IR verbs follow the same set of rules with the imperfect tense. To demonstrate, let’s look at the verb Hablar, which means to talk. The same goes when you’re conjugating verbs that end in ‘-ar.’ All you have to do is replace that ending for the appropriate imperfect one. Remember that IR verbs follow the same rules. For this example, we’ll use the verb beber, which means to drink.Īs you can see, we are using an ER verb as an example here. In order to form the imperfect ending for a regular verb ending in ‘-er’ or ‘-ir’ correctly, all you have to do is remove the final two letters – ‘er’ or ‘ir’ – at the end, and replace it with the imperfect ending. The Imperfect ‘-er’ and ‘-ir’ Endings in Spanish Instead, the clear purpose of this sentence is to indicate that I once liked dancing, but now I don’t. No specifics are pointed out, nor do we find out any context, like when, who, or how. ⭐ ‘I used to like dancing with my friends.’īy saying I used to, you clearly indicate that you once enjoyed dancing with your friends historically, and have since stopped dancing (or enjoying it!). Still confused? Let’s think about another: The focus of the sentence is that the friends were dancing at some point, which is also indicated by finishing with an -ing, otherwise known as a gerund (a verb that also functions as a noun) – but we are also referring to an ‘imperfect past’ in English, AKA a past action that does not have a clear cut start or end point. ⭐ ‘My friends were dancing when I walked in.’ If you want to refer to something that has already happened or an event that occurred in the past, without indicating a clear cut timeframe, then we use what’s known as imperfect tense.
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