The document provides information about the preterit and imperfect tenses in Spanish. It discusses how the preterit tense is used for one-time actions in the past with a definite beginning and end, as well as for narrating a sequence of past events. Meanwhile, the imperfect tense is used for ongoing or repeated past actions without a clear beginning or end, describing age or feelings in the past, and interrupted activities. A chart compares and contrasts uses of the preterit and imperfect tenses.

1. Imperfect or Preterit
Mrs. Huff
Spanish 3

2. Preterit Tense
• Remember your wheel and your
giant/Grant chart of conjugations?
• Need a copy of that chart?
é amos í imos
aste iste
ó aron ió ieron

3. Imperfect Tense
• Remember what we JUST took at test
over last week?
aba ábamos ía íamos
ías
abas
aba aban ía ían

4. What’s the difference?
• Both the PRETERIT and the
IMPERFECT are tense about things
that already happened, so . . .what’s
the difference??
• Title your notes:
Reasons to use
the Preterit or Imperfect

5. Make a chart on your paper . . .
Preterit Tense Imperfect Tense
Past Tense

6. Preterit Tense
1. One-time action
• It happened, it’s over
• I FELL down the stairs.
2. Definite beginning and definite ending
• Starting time and ending time
• I GOT DRESSED for school.
3. Narration (of what happened)
• Telling a story/sequence of events
• Then I WENT into the cafeteria.
4. Interrupting action
• An action that interrupts another action in the
past
• He was doing his homework when I CALLED.

7. Imperfect Tense
1. Ongoing action
• A past action in progress (was/were)
• I WAS SLEEPING on my couch at 8:00.
2. Repeated action
• Happened often (used to)
• She USED TO PLAY with dolls.
3. No definite beginning or end
• No start time and no real ending
• When I WAS A CHILD, . . . .
4. Time/Date/Age/Feeling/Description
• All of those . .
• When I WAS 10 years old, I WAS skinny.
5. Interrupted activity
• An action that gets interrupted
• He WAS DOING his homework when I called.