Preterite form of Spanish Past tense
What is Preterite tense in Spanish?
Preterite form of Spanish is how we let people know that the action in our sentences are in the past- it already happened. This tense is very musical. It is important you practice conjugating verbs in past tense OUT LOUD! Get the rhythm, get the music down! The sounds are the only way we as listeners know that you are speaking in past tense. Listen to our audio file above! Practice conjugating Focus on the music being created versus the meaning of the words first!
Common Irregular Spanish Verbs:
Spanish preterite tense has a lot of irregular verbs. Start learning the most popular, most important ones. Below are just a few of the most important most common irregular Spanish verbs.
- ser
- estar
- tener
- ir
- poder
- decir
- traer
- venir
- hacer
- poner
These are just a few of the most common irregular Spanish verbs in preterite form. The first 4 are critical! If you want use to create a post on this topic, comment below!
How to Practice Preterite Conjugations in Spanish?
- Talk to yourself in Spanish! Create simple repetitive sentences
- Tell yourself what you did in Spanish.
- Do written work! Use our Past tense Spanish worksheets
- Use text to speech feature and listen to old news.
- Listen to places like CNN in Spanish
- Use our free past tense Spanish practice vid.
What is the Difference between Preterite & Imperfect?
The short answer is preterite past tense is final and imperfect tense is not! Meaning the action ended and it is very obvious vs the action probably ended but we have doubts, it is unclear and there is no clear time stamp.
Examples of Preterite sentences:
- Marìa estudiò con Lisa el lunes pasado!
- Ellos regresaron ayer.
- La clase terminò a las 8pm
These are obvious examples of why you have to use preterite past tense Spanish instead of Imperfect tense. Ex #1 has ” el lunes pasado” as a time stamp. Ex:#2 has “ayer” and #3 “a las 8pm”. These are containers of time which make it clear that an action has ended. That is why you must use preterite past tense and not imperfect.
Examples of Imperfect sentences:
- Marìa estudiaba español.
- Ellos hablaban todos los dìas.
- La clase siempre terminaba a la misma hora.
Ex: #1 shows no clear time stamp and the sentence focuses on how Marìa did the action often- more than once. This is why Imperfect Spanish tense is needed instead of Preterite.
Ex:#2 Shows an action that was done often/ a repetitive action in the past. “Todos los dias” is not a time stamp but a keyword that represents repetitive action. Only imperfect tense can be used with repetitive past action.
Ex:#3 uses “siempre” which is a keyword that points to repetitive action. Imperfect tense must be used in these examples!
The differences between Preterite Spanish tense & Imperfect tense are a lot! If you want Spanish in Atlanta to create a post on this, comment below! We hope this Preterite form of Spanish blog post helps you all! 🙂
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