This is not surprising, since the difference in meaning can be traced back to the different way in which these two past tenses are used.Įn aquella época conocíamos muy bien la ciudad. Some verbs actually change meaning, depending upon whether they are used in the preterite or the imperfect. Here are the verbs, along with their corresponding stem changes: Infinitive The pattern is that while their stems change, they all take the following endings: There are a number of verbs that are irregular in the preterite that follow a particular pattern. Verbs that end in -ucir are irregular and conjugated as follows: Here are three more verbs that are irregular in the preterite: decir Verbs that end in -aer, -eer, -oír, -oer, and uir change ió to yó and ieron to yeron.There are a number of orthographic changing verbs in the preterite: They change e:i and o:u in the third person, singular and plural. ir verbs that change their stem in the present tense do change in the preterite, but in a different way. They are conjugated just like other regular preterite verbs. ar and -er verbs that change their stem in the present tense do not change in the preterite. Other words and phrases indicate repetitive, vague or non-specific time frames, and therefore signal the use of the imperfect. Hace dos días, años (two days, years ago) Some words and phrases indicate specific time frames, and therefore signal the use of the preterite.ĭesde el primer momento (from the first moment) There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect: ser Note: This is not a typo ser and ir do have identical conjugations in the preterite! For example, El tren llega a las 3 (The train arrives at 3), or El bus lleg tarde (The bus got here late). In that case, it can be used in most contexts when you would use to arrive in English. The first meaning is to arrive or to get somewhere. Ser, ir, dar and hacer are irregular in the preterite: ser Updated on JanuThe Spanish verb llegar has two different meanings. To describe the characteristics of people, things or conditions.For actions that “set the stage” for another past action.
For actions that were repeated habitually.The imperfect is used in the following situations: To state the beginning or the end of an action.For actions that were part of a chain of events.For actions that occurred during a specific period of time.For actions that were repeated a specific number of times.For actions that can be viewed as single events.The preterite is used in the following situations: Generally speaking, the preterite is used for actions in the past that are seen as completed, while the imperfect tense is used for past actions that did not have a definite beginning or a definite end.Īnother way to view this is that the preterite tells us specifically when an action took place, while the imperfect tells us in general when an action took place. Here are all three regular imperfect verb forms together: hablar Note: The nosotros forms for -ar and -ir verbs are the same in both preterite and present tenses: hablamos, vivimos. Here are all three regular preterite verb forms together: hablar Subjunctive VIII: Actions not yet completed Subjunctive III: Verbs that change orthographically Subjunctive II: Conjugating regular and stem-changing verbs
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