Past tense and imperfect past tense
I am kinda confused on the past tense between imperfect and past tense. example: trabajaba trabajé trabajabas trabajaste trabajaba trabajó trabajábamos trabajamos trabajabais trabajasteis trabajaban trabajaron
5 Answers
Hi Jacie: Welcome to the forum. I see you haven't taken any of the Spanish lessons yet. This website has a lot of features to help you learn Spanish. Videos, grammar articles, etc. Please read the forum rules for posting questions in the future. Good Luck.
| Preterit – Pretérito (Past - Completed) | ? | Imperfect – Imperfecto (Past - Continuous) |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ? | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| This tense expresses an action in the past that was completed at some time in the past. The specific past actions will have been performed (1)- at a fixed point in time (2)- a specific number of times in the past (3)- during a specific amount of time in the past | ? | This tense expresses an action or a state of being in the past that was ongoing or continuous in the past. The action(s) in the past will have these qualities (1)- they took place repeatedly in the past (2)- they were ongoing or continuous in the past (3)- they occurred over an extended period of unspecified time in the past |
| ? |
This is a basic comparison. There is certainly more detail and in particular, regarding the imperfect. For the additional more detailed information and examples, see Paralee Whitmire's Reference Pages by following these links
For the preterit ----> El Pretérito , and
For the Imperfect ----> El Imperfecto
Thank you very much for the help!!!
Here's a very simple explanation: preterite vs imperfect.
And this page gives you some words that signal the use of one or the other: words indicating time frames.
Hope this helps.
Jacie,
Check this site out for the imperfect. You can link up to the past tense to see that as well. 
