What's an easy way to remember irregular verbs in the preterit?

Question

I have a test tomorrow on the preterit and imperfect past tenses. I keep finding myself mixed up when conjugating verbs in a story in Spanish. Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

I agree these are confusing at times. I try to remember that the imperfect is used to tell the background story and the preterit is used to describe a single event.

Also, the imperfect is always used when telling age and time. For example, Cuando tenía cinco años (when I was five years old....), Cuando era niño (when I was a boy...), Era las ocho cuando el teléphono sonó. (It was eight o'clock when the phone rang).

¡Buena suerte! I'm sure you'll do great.

Where are the reference articles on SD? Could you post a link? - JCameron, Oct 21, 2009