a>p>When it comes to the topic of the conjugation of Spanish Verbs, the Spanish preterit tense is another area which generally seems to befuddle students of the Spanish language. English speakers learning to speak Spanish have a tendency to confuse the preterit and the imperfect and the other way around. Each tense explains activities which took place in the past.

But I do believe English speakers just learning to speak Spanish are likely to mix them up for one main reason. That´s simply because in English, we oftentimes use the same exact verb to describe an action that took place previously. However in Spanish and some other romance languages, in the same occasion, you cannot use both the preterit or the imperfect. Just one would be proper and correct. By way of example, in the English language, we are able to make use of the past tense of the verb "to go" (i.e. "went") to identify a couple of distinct activities which took place in the past.

1. She went to the movie theatre four times.

2. When she was young, she went to the movie theatre.

Observe that in the English language, for number "2″ one may also say "When she was young, she used to go to the movie theatre."

Both phrases make use of the same verb "went" to illustrate the activity that happened in the past. In Spanish, you cannot use the identical verb tense. In the very first phrase, one should make use of the preterite of "ir" (fue), and the imperfect verb tense (iba) in the second phrase.

I will include the "imperfect" verb tense in larger detail within a future article. But for right now, imagine the "imperfect" as a action-word tense helpful to describe "how things used to be" and/or to illustrate an activity which was constant or even habitual during the past.

The preterit verb tense is normally helpful to illustrate what took place:
(1) in the course of a set period of time (either mentioned or even implied),
(2) a particular number of times,
(3) or throughout an enclosed stretch of time.

In closing this article, I will illustrate a several instances where the preterit verb tense should be used instead of the imperfect verb tense.

(1) During the course of a set period of time (either mentioned or even implied):

La semana pasada compraste un horno.

Last week, you bought an oven.

(2) A particular number of times

Él prendió la estufa dos veces.

He lit the stove two times.

(3) During an enclosed period of time.

Almorzamos por media hora.

We ate lunch for half an hour.

Patrick Jackson is the founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Sign up for our FREE online LIVE weekly Spanish classes or get a FREE interactive demo copy of the Verbarrator – the verb conjugation tool that will help you master the conjugation of Spanish Verbs go here now: http://verbarrator.com/

Author: Patrick V. Jackson
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