The Past Is a Foreign Country

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
–Leslie Poles Hartley, The Go-Between

This quote says much about the differences between the past in Spanish and that in English.

Spanish has two forms of the past tense: the Preterite and the Imperfect. Why would someone need two forms of the same tense? That’s nuts, I tell you! But is it?

It all comes down to perception of the past. I’m not debating whether something in the past has happened. Instead, it’s about time and your perception of that time. Time's affect on something or someone in the past.

For example, “I washed my car” can be viewed in the following ways:

1.     I wash my car just the one time and never before. Perhaps it’s a brand new car and I've only had it for a very short period of time. From my perspective of the event, it was short, over and done.

2.     I wash my car over and over again or periodically when it really needs it. Maybe it is winter and the salt that the city uses to help melt the snow is eating away at my car. The only way to help reduce that chemical reaction to my car’s body is to keep it washed quite a bit. My perspective is different in this situation as I am washing the car more often.

You would use the Preterite for number one above and the Imperfect for number two.

The Preterite is short, sweet, and to the point. Often you will see action verbs use the Preterite as you go through detailing the action that happened. A sense of time, finality of the moment or event, or a specific time will trigger using the Preterite. In this example, "Marta called Juan to talk last night," the time of "last night" is important to the action because Marta did not call Juan two nights ago or even last week. She called him last night only. As far as we know, this was a one time only action in the past.

The Imperfect is habitual, descriptive, and prone to interruptions. Narratives use the Imperfect because they are setting the stage and giving you additional information that you might not otherwise get any other way. Time is not a factor for the Imperfect. That’s not to say you cannot use time with the Imperfect. You would use time to help describe the moment or event in the past. That time would not be a crucial action, but rather more for informational purposes only. For example, if I was to say that "on Wednesdays I used to run to the park," the time of "on Wednesdays" is more for information (description, narrative) rather than pin-pointing a specific time to the action. The time in this reference has no bearing on whether or not I used to run to the park.

Every verb has a conjugation in the Preterite and in the Imperfect. Use the above information to know when to use which.

Here are the common, regular forms of both the Preterite and the Imperfect.

The Preterite:

	-AR	-ER	-IR
	Hablar = to speak	Comer = to eat	Vivir = to live
Yo	hablé	comí	viví
Tú	hablaste	comiste	viviste
El, Ella, Vd.	habló	comió	vivió
Nosotros/Nosotras	hablamos	comimos	vivimos
Vosotros/Vosotras	hablasteis	comisteis	vivisteis
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	hablaron	comieron	vivieron

Notice that the Nosotros/Nosotras forms are the same as in the Present tense. Also observe that both the –ER and –IR verb endings are exactly the same. So really, you only need to know two sets of Preterite conjugations for all three regular verbs. Pretty cool, huh?

The Imperfect:

	-AR	-ER	-IR
	Hablar = to speak	Comer = to eat	Vivir = to live
Yo	hablaba	comía	vivía
Tú	hablabas	comías	vivías
El, Ella, Vd.	hablaba	comía	vivía
Nosotros/Nosotras	hablábamos	comíamos	vivíamos
Vosotros/Vosotras	hablabais	comíais	vivíais
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	hablaban	comían	vivían

Did you see that the Yo and El, Ella, Vd. forms are the same across all three verb types? Pay attention to the accent marks as you have more of them in the Imperfect than you do in the Preterite -- especially for the –ER and –IR verbs. Just like the Preterite, you only have to learn two sets of Imperfect conjugations for all three regular verbs.

Please remember that accent marks are very important in Spanish. Habló and hablo have two distinct meanings. The main difference between them is the accent mark. The one with the accent mark is the Preterite El, Ella, Vd. form meaning “he, she, or you spoke.” The one without the accent mark is the present tense in the Yo form meaning “I speak.” Just a quick tip on when you say words with accent marks, throw the weight of the word on the accented vowel. Like this: habl-A-bamos. If you get hung up, try clapping your hands together on the vowel that takes the accent mark. This will help train you to anticipate the accent and where to put emphasis in the word.

Let’s practice!

In the comments below, write a few sentences in Spanish using either the Preterite or Imperfect. You can use regular verbs. Next time, I’ll go over the irregular verbs for the past tense. Until then . . .

¡Hasta luego!

~Keith