Can you do a "past tense for dummies" post for Spanish?
Okay so bare bones overview
Spanish has two tenses for past tense - preterite and imperfect
Preterite is the easy one. It’s used as simple past. Things that are completed and totally finished and specifically things with set time phrases use the preterite. These are the “action” parts of a sentence in the past
Me senté en el sofá. = I sat down on the sofa.
Leí el poema. = I read the poem.
Hablaron con ellas. = They spoke with them (f).
Hablaron con ellos. = They spoke with them (m+m, m+f).
No me lo dijeron. = They didn’t tell me (it).
Volví a la oficina. = I returned to the office.
Imperfect tense is more complicated for English-speakers. This is typically the confusing one because English doesn’t have the clear distinction.
I find it most helpful to think of what “imperfect” means linguistically. The term “perfect” means “thoroughly done”, while “imperfect” means “not yet completed fully”
In that sense, imperfect is more typically narrative, description, describing things that “were” happening.
Me sentaba en el sofá. = I was sitting on the sofa.
Leía el poema. = I was reading the poem.
Hablaban con ellas. = They were speaking with them (f).
Hablaban con ellos. = They were speaking with them (m+m, m+f).
No me lo decían. = They weren’t telling me (it).
Volvía a la oficina. = I was going back to the office.
These work more narratively and set the scene. They typically introduce the situation, while preterite is often an interruption of action - the thing that actually happens.
Me sentaba en el sofá cuando sonó el timbre. = I was sitting on the sofa when the doorbell rang.
Estaba durmiendo cuando me llamaron. = I was sleeping when they called me.
Pagamos la cuenta mientras estábamos en el restaurante. = We paid the bill while we were in the restaurant.
Note: Telling time is always done in imperfect and most time expressions are done that way
Era la una. = It was one o’clock.
Ya era hora. = It was high time. / Now was the time. [as in “this was the moment.”]
Eran las siete de la mañana. = It was seven o’clock in the morning.
For weather, it can depend. It’s normally imperfect, but it can be preterite in some situations. Normally preterite weather expressions have a specific time frame in mind.
Hacía mucho frío. = It was really cold outside.
Hizo mucho frío ayer. = It was really cold yesterday.
Hacía viento. = It was windy.
Hizo viento el viernes. = It was windy on Friday.
Hacía calor. = It was hot.
El agosto pasado hizo mucho calor. = Last August was really hot.
This weather one is very particular because with preterite it sounds like you’re saying “the entire time”, while imperfect is just a description that may or may not have been completed.
It’s very normally imperfect with the weather, but it is something to keep in mind.
Another very important function of the imperfect tense is “used to”. This can be done with the imperfect tense, or with soler in the imperfect tense [soler doesn’t exist in preterite at all for this reason].
In present tense, soler means “to be in the habit of” or “to do often”, but in imperfect in comes out as “used to”
Llovía. = It was raining. / It used to rain.
Solía llover. = It used to rain. [“used to” imperfect only]
Tocaba el piano. = I was playing the piano. / I used to play the piano.
Solía tocar el piano. = I used to play the piano. [“used to” imperfect only]
Hablábamos con la vecina. = We were speaking to the neighbor. / We used to speak to the neighbor.
Solíamos hablar con la vecina. = We used to speak to the neighbor. [“used to” imperfect only]
Iban a la playa. = They were going to the beach. / They used to go to the beach.
Solían ir a la playa. = They used to go to the beach. [“used to” imperfect only]
The hard part of imperfect is deciding how something should be read in English
There’s also some special cases with preterite/imperfect.
Normally, most sentences could be either with the meaning changing slightly like “was eating” vs. “ate”
But there are particular verbs where the meaning will drastically change depending on which one you choose. It’s a more involved topic since it can be difficult to fully explain but I’ll just list the verbs and what they normally mean:
querer in imperfect = “wanted” [what you normally want]
querer in preterite = “tried/attempted to”
no querer in imperfect = “didn’t want” [what you normally want]
no querer in preterite = “refused to”
conocer in imperfect = “knew (someone/something)”, “used to know”
conocer in preterite = “met, became acquainted with”
saber in imperfect = “knew (facts)”, “had knowledge of”
saber in preterite = “found out”, “discovered”, “learned of”
poder in imperfect = “was able to”, “could” [what you normally want]
poder in preterite = “was successful in doing”, “managed to do”
[And by consequence no poder is “couldn’t” as in “did not have the ability” in imperfect, but in preterite it comes out as “failed to do” or “was unsuccessful”]
The other verbs to watch are tener and haber
tener is the wildcard because preterite tener usually means “to physically have” as in “to obtain”. The problem is that there are a lot of expressions that use tener like tener hambre “to be hungry” etc. It’s normally imperfect tener you want, but it’s a case by case basis.
And haber is a style change. Imperfect haber means “there was/were” in an everyday way... haber in preterite is “there was/were” in a shocking way.
Using haber in preterite is typically reserved for reporting on things out of the ordinary and particularly accidents, deaths, and disasters:
Había comida. = There was food.
Hubo un terremoto. = There was an earthquake.
Había mucha lluvia. = There was a lot of rain. [not serious]
Hubo mucha lluvia. = There was a lot of rain. [serious, reads like it was a disaster]
This one can also depend on the mood of the sentence, but particularly in journalism you’ll see hubo un accidente “there was an accident”, hubo un robo “there was a robbery”, or hubo un maremoto “there was a tsunami”
Using hubo can happen for specific time phrases like the weather though so keep that in mind, but usually hubo marks a more serious tone
In everyday Spanish, imperfect haber is more common. And using imperfect with haber is what you use when using the perfect tenses:
He hablado con ella. = I’ve spoken with her. [present perfect]
Había hablado con ella. = I’d spoken with her. [pluperfect]
Hemos hecho el proyecto. = We have done the project. [present perfect]
Habíamos hecho el proyecto. = We had done the project. [pluperfect]
Han dicho la verdad. = They have told the truth. [present perfect]
Habían dicho la verdad. = They had told the truth. [pluperfect]
If you need a more detailed explanation of anything I mentioned please let me know. I don’t mind explaining things in more detail, this is just a very large topic so it’s more of an overview.
