Form of the past

Question

Which form of the past between these three is more common when learning Spanish. Is it the present perfect, the imperfect or the preterit?

Answer 1

For learning concentrate on the hardest to the easiest (you're a native English speaker I presume). Preterite - simple past denoting a completed action. This has the most irregular forms.

Imperfect - past denoting an ongoing action in the past. Very regular in construction.

Present Perfect - an action that starts in the past and continues until the present. You only have to learn the present tense of the verb haber and the past participles of the verbs.

But as SalvadorRSPR says they are all important to learn!

Answer 2

All of the above my friend.

Answer 3

This is how I learned it and it is a very simple way I believe.

Preterite is something that happened "one time"

And Imperfect is something that "used-to" happen

For example:Emilia iba a la playa

         Emily used to go to the beach 

And

Emilia fue al la playa

Emily went to the beach

I hope this helps you it helped me and I had an easier time understanding it this way than any other way people tried to teach me.

mucho gracias - Mattlar, Aug 7, 2014

Answer 4

Mattlar; Depending on where you are in your studies,I would stay with the simple past ( pretérito) preterite in english I believe. the other forms can come as your studies progress.

I get what you mean. So it become more of a feeling. - Mattlar, Aug 7, 2014