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 in Spanish

Learning how to conjugate in Spanish is without doubt the most difficult part of learning the Spanish language. Spanish has an extremely high number of irregular verbs, some more irregular than others, and as well as having to learn new conjugations for all of the common tenses there is also the subjunctive to learn, which is rarely used in English but extremely common in Spanish.

When considering all of the factors spelled out above, it is little wonder that many students give up all because they fail to master Spanish verb conjugation.

However, there is a new software program that has been a resounding success in helping struggling students get past their personal stumbling blocks and it does it quickly too!

The name of that program is Verbarrator and it not only provides excellent verb training but it is enjoyable to use and speeds up the learning process! More about the Verbarrator later…back to learning to conjugate in Spanish!

The simplest way to explain how to conjugate in Spanish is to show Spanish conjugation in it’s simplest form which is a regular verb in the present tense. If you are not aware already, you need to know that there are three different verb groups in Spanish, and those groups are comprised of verbs that end in ar, er and ir.

Here is the basic present tense conjugation for a verb from each of the regular verb groups.

• Trabajar – to work
• I work – trabajo
• You work – trabajas
• he/she works – trabaja
• we work – trabajamos
• you all work – trabajaís
• they work – trabajan

• Abrir – to open
• I open – abro
• You open – abres
• he/she open – abre
• we open – abrimos
• you all open – abrís
• they open – abren

• Aprender – to learn
• I learn – aprendo
• You learn – aprendes
• he/she learn – aprende
• we learn – aprendemos
• you all learn – aprendéis
• they learn – aprenden

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Learning the conjugation of irregular Spanish verbs is never easy and querer is one such verb that is both highly irregular and, at the same time, very widely used. This article explores the irregularities of the verb querer and provides specific conjugations of the most used irregular tenses.

The Spanish verb querer is a commonly used verb that is highly irregular, and as such will require special attention from the student. Querer is more commonly used as the Spanish equivalent to the English verb, to want but is also used as an alternative to amar, meaning, to love.

Querer is a stem changing verb which is a verb that is often referred to as a regular irregular verb because the verb endings are consistent to those of a regular verb, with the exception of the preterite. In the case of querer the e in the stem changes to ie when conjugated in some tenses and in other tenses the single r will change to a double rr. However, the most drastic change is when the verb is used in the past tenses, the stem quer- changing to quis- for no apparent reason!

I will start by highlighting the Present tense. The verb endings, as mentioned, follow the pattern of a regular -er verb, but the stem changes subtly. This specific change to the stem also occurs in the Subjunctive Present tense and the Imperative.

Present Tense Conjugation

• yo quiero – I want
• tú quieres – you want
• usted/él/ella quiere – you, he or she wants
• nosotros/as queremos – we want
• vosotros/as queréis – you (all) want
• ustedes/ellos/ellas quieren – you (all), they want

It is worth noting that the stem in the first and second person plural do not change, and this is also the case for the other tenses affected by this irregularity.

The preterite is a tense that is very often irregular for many verbs and querer is no exception, with the stem changing drastically as highlighted here and also the regular -er endings for yo and él/usted are replaced by -e and -o respectively:

Preterite Conjugation

• yo quise – I wanted
• tú quisiste – you wanted
• usted/él/ella quiso – you, he or she wanted
• nosotros/as quisimos – we wanted
• vosotros/as quisisteis – you (all) wanted
• ustedes/ellos/ellas quisieron – you (all), they wanted

Unlike the present tense the irregularity covers all persons. This specific irregularity is also experienced in the conjugations of the Subjunctive Imperfect and Future tenses and again applies to every form.

The final irregularity is encountered when using querer is when the -r changes to -rr and this happens when the verb is used in the Future and Conditional Tenses, again the irregularity covers all formations in both tenses.

Future Tense Conjugation

• yo querré – I will want
• tú querrás – you will want
• usted/él/ella querrá – you, he or she will want
• nosotros/as querremos – we will want
• vosotros/as querréis – you (all) will want
• ustedes/ellos/ellas querrán – you (all), they will want

So, as you can see, querer will take some getting to know but with the use of a Spanish verb conjugator for verb training there is no reason why Querer cannot be learned quickly and used confidently.

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If you have ever been told that there are only 25 irregular verbs in the Spanish language, give or take the odd one or two, I’m sorry to tell you this, but you have been misled a little! There are, in fact, actually well over two thousand of them! Thankfully, many of these irregular verbs are quite obscure and will not be used too often, which means that learning them is not really that important for the vast majority of us. However, you will still definitely need to learn more than the twenty five or so verbs, so often quoted by misleading sources.

Of the irregular verbs that you definitely need to know, there are a number that it is absolutely necessary to have an extremely good understanding of. Unfortunately, many of these verbs are, as is so often the case, also the most irregular in the Spanish language and because of this many students find that learning them is an obstacle that they just cannot get past and as a result give up learning Spanish before they even get started, the obvious solution to this problem is to try and make learning verbs much easier and far more enjoyable…but how?

Conjugating Spanish Verbs

The age old method of learning difficult and demanding irregular verbs was to use a verb conjugation book that contained verb tables that were read repeatedly until the verb formations were etched into ones memory. I wonder how many of you can recall reciting verb conjugation, in unison, with the rest of your class over and over again when you were at school…I know I do, it was the most boring and tedious part of learning a language and something that almost put me off learning languages for life! Problem was, there were few alternatives until, that is, the computer age dawned!

The increase in ownership of home computers and easy internet access has meant that learning Spanish has become much more accessible and, dare I say it, easier. It is not too difficult nowadays to be able to find free learning materials and inexpensive downloadable courseware previously unobtainable for many people. However, it has not been until relatively recently that any real efforts were being spent by software designers on developing verb conjugation software that would make the difficult and challenging task of learning Spanish verbs any easier.

There have been quite a number of free verb conjugation programs and verb tables available online for a while now, but a lot of them are just basic digital versions of what was already available in print and they did little, if anything, to enhance either the education of, or the enjoyment level of the student other than offer them a certain novelty factor for a short time. The problem facing developers was always going to be how they could make an improvement without altering what needed to be learned basically, they had to re-invent the wheel.

Since developers could not, in any way, alter the information that needed to be passed on to the end user they would therefore have to look at ways of improving how this information was studied. Their objectives would be quite simple:

• Develop a program that would make the task of learning verb conjugation easier
• Make learning verbs much more enjoyable.
• And…as a result of the previous two points would therefore shorten the time taken to learn Spanish

A program that could match these three criteria would do nothing short of revolutionizing how people learn Spanish verbs. However, although the objectives may seem quite simple, and painfully obvious, achieving them will certainly not be quite so easy.

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However, for the vast majority of people, the excitement and eagerness to learn Spanish is quickly cast aside as the sudden realization of the challenge confronting them soon hits home, and this is why it is extremely important to think ahead and plan how and when to study and how to set realistic goals.

Learning Spanish takes time and effort and there is no escaping that fact. Some people are more adept at learning languages than others and will pick things up quicker, but even for those who fall into that bracket it will still take a considerable amount of time.

There are two main reasons why people fail when trying to learn Spanish, the first is that they do not put aside enough time to study and, the second is that they thought that it would be a lot easier than they actually found it to be.

Eliminating the first of the two reasons above is pretty easy and can be done so by simply working out a timetable and sticking to it, devoting as much time as you are able to towards your studies. Though the key to a successful timetable is to be realistic…do not set your schedule too tight or you will struggle!

The second reason is a little more difficult to brush aside! Unfortunately there is no 100% proven method of how to learn Spanish that will work for everyone. No one person is the same and because of that, each will learn at a different pace. Also, a specific method of learning a language, or a certain course, will suit one person but not somebody else.

With that in mind you may well be thinking how is it possible to prepare when there are so many variables? How can you prepare yourself for the challenge ahead when you don’t know what challenges you will face?

The reality is that there is no ‘best way to learn Spanish’ that can be used as a road map to success, and until you actually start learning you won’t know for sure how difficult or how easy you will find it. So the best way to prepare is to do so mentally.

You should never underestimate how difficult and frustrating learning Spanish can be and prepare to be patient. Patience is the key! By setting a realistic timetable and preparing yourself mentally for the challenge that is ahead of you, you will be giving yourself the best start possible.

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