Spanish Past Tense

The Spanish past tense throws up a problem for many students and that is whether they should use the imperfect or preterite?

In Spanish, the two simple past tenses that are predominantly used, are called the Imperfect and the Preterite and it is perfectly understandable for students, who are learning about past tenses for the first time, to be unsure as to which of these two tenses to use and when.

It goes without saying that both tenses are used to describe past actions or states but each is used differently and the following rules will hopefully clear up any confusion.

When to Use the Preterite

The preterite tense is used to express an action that was completed at some time in the past, listed here are some specific uses and examples:

• When referring to a series of actions in the past:
  • Me desayuné, limpié la casa y me fui a la estación – I had breakfast, cleaned the house, and went to the station.

• When referring to the beginning or the end of a past event:
  • La fiesta empezó a las diez – The party began at 10:00

• When referring to things that are seen as being complete:
  • Dejó el trabajo hace un año – You left the job a year ago

When to Use the Imperfect
The imperfect tense expresses an action or state  that was ongoing during the past and if it is uncertain whether it has been completed. Specific uses and examples are listed below:

• To explain an action that a person did in the past habitually:
  • Cuando estábamos en el colegio, jugábamos al fútbol todos los jueves. – When we were at school, we used to play football every Thursday

• To refer to an action without making reference to an end or a beginning:
  • Mi mujer tenía dolores de cabeza frecuentes – My wife had frequent headaches

• When referring to actions that were taking place simultaneously in the past:
  • Mi hijo miraba televisión y mi hija cantaba – My son was watching television and my daughter was singing

• When describing physical, emotional or mental states or conditions:
  • Estaba tan feliz que quería llorar – I was so happy that I wanted to cry

• When referring to a past time:
  • Eran las ocho y media de la tarde – It was 8:30 p.m.
  • Era la una de la mañana – It was 1:00 a.m.

• When describing an action or state that happened at some point in the past and that lasted for a certain amount of time and that happened prior to another past action.
  • Hacía todo el día que esperando cuando mi mujer llegó – I had been waiting all day when my when arrived

Hopefully, these guidelines will provide the clarity you need.

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How to Conjugate Ser in the Preterite Tense

Learning how to conjugate ser in the preterite tense can be a little confusing for students for two reasons. And they are that -

• the preterite conjugation of ser is highly irregular
• it shares the exact same conjugation as the Spanish verb ir, meaning ‘to go’.

The first reason shouldn’t come as a surprise to most students who have encountered ser when studying conjugations in other tenses as it is one of the most irregular verbs in Spanish, but the degree of irregularity in the preterite still surprises most of them.

The second reason is generally the most confusing aspect of ser in the preterite as the question that is often asked is whether it means ‘was’ or ‘went’?. Once explained however, the confusion is short lived. Although, before you are enlightened further, with the use of some examples, we should look at how ser in conjugated in the preterite first of all!

The Preterite Form of Ser (…and Ir!)

• fui - I was
• fuiste - you was
• fue - he was
• fuimos - we were
• fuisteis - you were
• fueron - they were

Now that you have been shown the conjugation above that is used for both ser and ir, I should perhaps explain how you can tell whether it is ‘was’ or ‘went’ that is being used.

All you need do is simply listen to, or read, the context in which the verb is being used!

For example:

• Ella fue una mal mujer – which means, she was a bad woman.
• Ella fue al mercado which means, she went to the market

As you can see both sentences begin with the same conjugation but the context defines which verb is being used. I mean, it would make no sense what so ever to say ’she went a bad woman’ or ’she was to the market’ now…would it?

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Spanish Preterite Tense Verbs

Using Spanish preterite tense verbs correctly is something that every student of Spanish should know how to do, and do well, as the preterite is probably the most widely used of all past tenses in Spanish.

However, the difficulty that many students face when learning the conjugation of verbs in the preterite tense is that there are large number of irregular verbs to master, many of which are an absolute necessity for use in day to day conversational Spanish.

If you are just starting out however, you should not concern yourself with the intricacies surrounding the conjugation of irregular verbs and first concentrate on mastering the basic preterite conjugation of regular verbs, and that is what will be covered here.

So, here are examples of three regular Spanish verbs, one from each of the three verb groups, conjugated in the preterite tense.

Hablar – to speak

• hablé - I spoke
• hablaste - you spoke
• habló - he/she spoke
• hablamos - we spoke
• hablasteis - you all spoke
• hablaron - they spoke

Abrir – to open

• abrí - I opened
• abriste - you opened
• abrió - he/she opened
• abrimos - we opened
• abristeis - you all opened
• abrieron - they opened

Beber – to drink

• bebí - I drank
• bebiste - you drank
• bebió - he/she drank
• bebimos - we drank
• bebisteis - you all drank
• bebieron - they drank

You may have noticed that the endings for the er and ir regular verbs are the same, which does make learning them a little easier.

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The Spanish Verb Venir

The Spanish Verb Venir, Past Tense Conjugation

Venir past tense conjugation, specifically the preterite tense, is extremely irregular and as such is a difficult Spanish verb to learn. This post provides the conjugation for both past tenses of the Spanish verb venir, the imperfect and the preterite and a suggestion as to how they could be learnt quickly.

There are many irregular verbs in Spanish, many of which are very important in everyday conversation and communication. One such irregular verb is Venir, meaning to come.

Venir is highly irregular, and nowhere is this more noticeable than when it is used in the preterite tense, which is one of the two past tenses used most often in Spanish, the imperfect tense being the other.

Venir follows the regular conjugation of an -ir verb when in the imperfect past tense as the table below shows, regular endings shown in bold;

Venir – Imperfect Tense

• yo venía I was coming
• tú venías you were coming
• él, ella      venía he, she or it was coming
• usted venía you were coming (polite singular)
• nosotros veníamos we were coming
• vosotros veníais you were (all) coming
• ellos, ellas venían they were coming
• ustedes venían you were (all) coming (polite plural)

However, the conjugation of the preterito, or preterit, is highly irregular and, as such, will require more study time to master fully:

Venir – Preterite Tense

• yo vine I came
• tú viniste you came
• él, ella vino he, she or it came
• usted vino you came (polite singular)
• nosotros vinimos we came
• vosotros vinisteis you (all) came
• ellos, ellas vinieron they came
• ustedes vinieron you (all) came (polite plural)

Venir, as previously mentioned, is a highly irregular verb in all but one of the simple tenses (that would be the imperfect tense as covered above) and as such, it would be a good idea to use a verb conjugation training program to help study it.

Verb conjugation training software programs are highly beneficial when studying verbs like venir and similar difficult verbs by providing targeted exercises on user designated problem areas and, by doing so, it will ensure you master the conjugations of irregular Spanish verbs like venir in the shortest time possible.

It should also be noted that there are also a few other verbs that follow this pattern of venir past tense conjugation and they are commonly referred to as the venir family of verbs and they are as follows:

• Intervenir to intervene or, to take part
• Prevenir to prevent or, to warn
• Sobrevenir to happen suddenly or, to follow
• Avenir to reconcile or, to come to an agreement
• Contravenir to violate, to contravene or, to infringe
• Devenir to become, to happen
• Convenir to agree on or, to be suitable
• Provenir to come from

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