Spanish: An Essential Grammar

The two basic uses of the preterite are illustrated in 11.1.2.1 and 11.1.2.2.

Certain other uses are best explained by means of a direct comparison

between the preterite and the imperfect (see 11.1.4).

With completed actions or events

The preterite describes actions that singly or in sequence were completed

in the past:

Me levanté, me lavé y salí.

I got up, washed and went out.

Construyeron la urbanización en cuatro meses.

They built the housing complex in four months.

Nicolás me llamó cinco veces anoche.

Nicolás called me five times last night.

With states that have come to an end

The preterite also refers to states of affairs that lasted during specified

(possibly very long) time limits in the past and have now ended.

Often, but by no means always, the prepositions durante‘for’ or hasta

‘until’ signal this usage:

Jugaron durante media hora.

They played for half an hour.

Felipe González fue presidente del gobierno desde 1982

hasta 1991.

Felipe González was president of the government (prime minister)

from 1982 to 1991.

Lo negó desde el principio.

He denied it from the start.

The imperfect tense

Characteristically the imperfect tense deals with actions or states of affairs

that were in progress in the past, or were habitual or customary in the past.

The English phrases ‘was happening’ or ‘used to happen’ suggest the use

of the imperfect tense in Spanish.

11.1.3

11.1.2.2

11.1.2.1

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1011

1

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

11

Uses of
tenses

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