Imperfect and Preterite Difference?
Can someone explain ( in really easy examples!!) the differences between Imperfect and Preterite. I have tried all my learning life to comprehend this and I just can't. They are both in the past, what is the difference?
7 Answers
Here is a link to a previous reply I posted. Look this over and see if it is any help. ----> Preterite vs Imperfect.
Saludos/Best wishes,
Moe
Hopefully you know a little more now than you did when you posted. It is always hard to get a grasp on these as an English speaker because Spanish has a much richer source of verb forms. However we do have Imperfect and Simple Past which roughly correspond to imperfecto and pretérito in Spanish.
Here are some samples of each using estar from my own experience:
If someone asked me: ¿Cuándo lo compraste? I would answer: Cuando estuve in Bogotá. , but if I was narrating an experience like "When I was..." I would say: "Cuando estaba en Bogotá compré algo para mi esposo." You see that in English we would just use the simple past "was", but in Spanish you'd use imperfecto to express some time passing while you completed an action (or actions) pretérito , or the pretérito to espress a simple past time that you "were" in a place.
the differences between Imperfect and Preterite.
Your choice of terminology, here, reveals the underpinnings of your confusion. The word preterite is a term that is used to refer to grammatical tense. Specifically, it is used to refer to verb forms that signal that an action or event (specified by the lexical meaning of the verb) took place in the past.
In English, the preterite form of many verbs can be identified by the phoneme /d/ that is added to the verb's root form (i.e. look -> looked, wash -> washed, etc.). Other verbs demonstrate an interior vowel change (i.e. swim -> swam, run -> ran, etc.). While, still, others exhibit an irregular stem in the preterite (i.e. be -> was/were, go -> went). Consider the following examples:
- I looked around.
- I saw a rat.
- The rat was huge.
- The rat went one way.
- I ran the other way.
Due to the verb forms being used, it is clear to us that each event described above took place at some point in the past. It is this reference to the past by means of verbal inflection that we call the preterite. To reiterate, "preterite" is a term used refer to a verbs tense and allows us to envision a point of reference in the past in which an action occurred. None of this is likely to strike you as groundbreaking information. Assuming that English is your mother tongue, you already have an intuitive understanding of how to refer to events that occurred in the past. In fact, you might already feel relatively comfortable with the concept of tense as it relates to verb forms in English.
On the other hand, what might come as a new grammatical concept to you is the notion of verbal aspect. If tense allows us to pin an event or action to a specific point in time then aspect gives us a sense of the internal timing of that event. That is, it allows us to distinguish how that event occurred or unfolded at a particular point in time. When we speak in terms of "imperfect" verb forms, we are speaking in terms of just this sort of aspectual distinction. In this way, actions can be divided, based on how they unfold, into two categories: Perfective and imperfective.
Imperfective events are those events, actions or circumstances that occur in a continuous or recurrent fashion. In both English and Spanish, the simple present tense is said to express events or actions in just such a way. Consider the following set of examples:
- Sally talks too much—Sally habla demasiado.
- Sally is very smart—Sally es muy inteligente.
- Sally is at home—Sally está en casa.
- Sally likes strawberries—A Sally le gusta las fresas.
- Sally feeds her dog at nine o'clock—Sally da de comer a su perro a las nueve.
In each of these examples, we understand our temporal point of reference to be the present moment. If we consider the timing of how these actions or events actually occur in regards to the present moment then we are in effect considering the aspectual nature of these events. Notice that when we say that "Sally talks too much," we pinpoint this notion to the present, but the specific event of "Sally talking" does not necessarily occur directly at the present moment. Instead, Sally's talking can be taken to be a recurrent event or a condition inherent to Sally herself. The same thing can be said about the expressions "Sally is smart," "Sally is at home" and "Sally likes strawberries." Namely, her being smart or being at home or liking strawberries is a continuous state or condition that did not begin at the present moment, but rather, flows through it. Similarly, in the expression "Sally feeds her dog at nine o'clock," we are speaking about a present condition that is set up by the recurrent action of Sally feeding her dog at nine o'clock. Thus, even though
Here it is probably prudent to point out that verbal inflection (i.e. verb conjugations) is not the only means by which imperfective events can be expressed in a given language. In English, for example, there are various verb phrases that are employed to indicate the imperfective nature of an event. For example, notice how the following events are anchored in the past (tense), but notice, also, how the action itself can be considered ongoing or recurrent in nature rather than pinpointed to any exact moment in time:
- Sally used to talk too much.—Sally hablaba demasiado.
- Sally was very smart.—Sally era muy inteligente.
- Sally would feed her dog at nine o'clock—Sally daba de comer a su perro a las nueve.
Now in English, when we start talking of past events, it's possible for confusion to creep in if we are not careful. This is due to the fact that in English we only have a single past tense verb form, often referred to as the simple past. In Spanish, on the other hand, we have two—the pretérito imperfecto (often referred to as simply "the imperfect") and the pretérito perfectivo (often referred to simply as "the preterite").
In Spanish, therefore, there is no ambiguity with the expression "Sally era muy inteligente." We know to view the trait of Sally being smart as a characteristic that was not only evidenced at that precise moment in time, but rather, her intelligence was a condition that flowed through that past moment. Compare this with the English version, "Sally was very smart," an expression that can carry two distinct notions depending on the aspectual nature of the events. Namely, with an imperfective interpretation, we are taken back to that moment in time as events are unfolding. That is, we are transported back to a point in time in which we are able to bear witness to the ongoing nature inherent to Sally. With a perfective interpretation, on the other hand, we still pinpoint a particular time in the past; however, instead of drawing us in as a witness, we conceive of the action as completed and belonging wholly to that past moment in time.
Hello Lucy,
Welcome to the SpanishDict forum 
Basically, the preterite or simple past refers to an action that has been completed at some time in the past, whereas imperfect indicative expresses an action or state of being that was continuous and its completeion is not indicated.
The preterite action has already happened and only happens once:
ex's;
1.Nació en Bolivia en 1492 = He was born in Bolivia in 1492
2.Su tía llegó ayer = His aunt arrived yesterday
3.¿Qué pasó? = What happened?
The imperfect indicative tense is used to express:
1 An action that was going that was going on in the past at the same time as another action ex Mi hermano leía y mi padre hablaba = My brother was readinga nd my father was talking
2 An action that was going on in the past when another action occurred:
ex: Mi hermana cantaba cuando yo entré = My sister was singing when I came in.
This is used .to set the scene when writing stories, you start by using the imperfect indicative then the preterite follows
eg: Mis padres leían en la sala ¡cuando, de repente, alguien llamó a la puerta de la calle!
= My parents were reading in the living room when suddenly someone knocked at the front door!
3 A habitual action (were doing/used to do)
Cuando vivíamos en California, íbamos a la playa todos los días.
= When we lived (used to live) in California, we went to the beach every day.
These are some of the uses and differences in use between the preterite and imperfect indicative
I hope this helps
Imperfect is like ''usted to be'' or ''was''. Ex: Trabajaba- I/you usted to work or I/you was working.
I tried posting a link that helps a lot, but I'm unable to at this time. Type your title into the search box located on the Q & A page and you will find quite a few references there explained in detail.
