In this lesson we will consider two past tenses of the Spanish language.
Past tense I (Imperfective past tense)
This tense refers to an action in the past that has an indefinite (unknown) start and end date, continued or repeated action, started in the past and continues in the present, or took place over a period of time.
In simple words, it can be an action that was performed in the past but is not finished yet, or was performed often or sometimes, or many times, i.e. repeatedly. It could be 1,000 years ago, or 1 day ago, or the action could be started some minutes ago, i.e. the time range doesn’t matter. Some examples in English: “I walked there often”, “Sometimes he smoked”, “We watched this film many times”, “They go there every year”.
| Some keywords for this tense: | |
| Siempre – always A menudo – often Frecuentemente – frequently | A veces – sometimes Cada año – every year Mucho – a lot |
Now let’s see how to conjugate verbs in this tense, and then consider examples.
Escuchar – to listen to
| Yo escuchaba | I listened |
| Tú escuchabas | You listened |
| Él, ella, usted escuchaba | He, she, you listened |
| Nosotros escuchábamos | We listened |
| Vosotros escuchabais | You listened |
| Ellos, ustedes escuchaban | They, you listened |
All regular –AR verbs will have these endings in this tense.
–ER and –IR verbs have the same forms of conjugation in this tense.
Dormir – to sleep (regular in this tense)
| Yo dormía | I slept |
| Tú dormías | You slept |
| Él, ella, usted dormía | He, she, you slept |
| Nosotros dormíamos | We slept |
| Vosotros dormíais | You slept |
| Ellos, ustedes dormían | They, you slept |
All regular –ER and –IR verbs will have these endings in this tense.
Almost all verbs are regular in this tense. However, the verbs SER – to be, and IR – to go, and VER – to see are not. So their conjugation just has to be memorized:
| Ser – to be | Ir – to go | Ver – to see | |
| Yo | era | iba | veía |
| Tú | eras | ibas | veías |
| Él, ella, usted | era | iba | veía |
| Nosotros | éramos | íbamos | veíamos |
| Vosotros | erais | ibais | veíais |
| Ellos, ustedes | eran | iban | veían |
Conjugate these verbs in this tense:
| Tener – to have Dibujar – to draw | Explicar – to explain Tratar – to try | Poder – can Vivir – to live |
Examples
Ellos hablaban Inglés a veces – They spoke English sometimes
Nosotros comíamos mucho la comida Española – We ate Spanish food a lot
Yo dormía por un rato – I slept for a while
Ustedes no escuchaban la música – You didn’t listen to the music
Cuando tú eras joven, ¡Estudiabas mucho! – When you were young, you used to study a lot!
¿Adónde iba usted todo el tiempo? – Where did you go all the time?
Ellas visitaban la exhibición a menudo – They (females) visited the exhibition often
Alberto veía la ciudad a menudo – Albert saw the city often
Ella hacía compras en la tienda – She made purchases in the store
Yo estaba en la escuela todos los días – I have been to school every day
Past tense II (Preterite)
Unlike the past tense I, this tense refers to an action with definite (known) period of time, an action that occurred in the past and was finished, or continues until now.
| Some keywords for this tense: | |
| Ayer – yesterday, Anteayer – the day before yesterday Una vez – once El año pasado – last year | La semana pasada – last week El otro día – the other day Hace … años – … years ago Anoche – last night |
Now let’s see how to conjugate verbs in this tense.
Invitar – to invite
| Yo invité | I invited |
| Tú invitaste | You invited |
| Él, ella, usted invitó | He, she, you invited |
| Nosotros invitamos | We invited |
| Vosotros invitasteis | You invited |
| Ellos, ustedes invitaron | They, you invited |
All regular –AR verbs will have these endings in this tense.
As you can see, the conjugation with nosotros matches with its conjugation in the present tense.
In this tense –ER and –IR verbs have the same endings.
Responder – to respond
| Yo respondí | I responded |
| Tú respondiste | You responded |
| Él, ella, usted respindió | He, she, You responded |
| Nosotros respondimos | We responded |
| Vosotros respondisteis | You responded |
| Ellos, ustedes respondieron | They, You responded |
All regular –ER and –IR verbs will have these endings in this tense.
The examples will be after the next section “irregular verbs”
Conjugate these verbs in both past tenses with all pronouns:
| Ocurrir – to occur Llamar – to call Leer- to read Soñar – to dream Aceptar – to accept Permitir – to permit Manejar – to drive Dar – to give | Prestar – to borrow Cancelar – to cancel Cambiar – to change Terminar – to finish Lograr – to achieve/accomplish Pasar – to pass/to happen Aparecer – to appear Quejar – to complain |
Build sentences with these words:
| la calle – street la mesa – table la escuela – school el colegio – college el minuto – minute el segundo – second el bolleto – ticket la práctica – practice juntos – together el bolígrafo – pen | el avión – airplane barato – cheap caro – expensive amable – kind caliente – hot peligroso – dangerous completo – complete frecuente – frequent el libro – book la ciudad – city/town | el día – day lejos – far la hora – hour el año – year cerca – close el lápiz – pencil seguro – safe pasado – past el mes – month la semana – week |
Irregular verbs
Before considering examples, let’s learn more about irregular verbs in this tense. First of all – SER and IR. And there is a surprise – these two verbs have the same form in this tense!
Ser – to be, ir – to go
| Yo fui | I went, i was |
| Tú fuiste | You went, you were |
| Él, ella, usted fue | He, she, you went, were |
| Nosotros fuimos | We went, we were |
| Vosotros fuisteis | You went, you were |
| Ellos, ustedes fueron | They went, you were |
Unfortunately, there are a lot of irregular verbs in the Spanish language. Let’s consider the most often used ones.
| Tener – to have | Estar – to be | Hacer – to do | |
| Yo | tuve | estuve | hice |
| Tú | tuviste | estuviste | hiciste |
| Él, ella, usted | tuvo | estuvo | hizo |
| Nosotros | tuvimos | estuvimos | hicimos |
| Vosotros | tuvisteis | estuvisteis | hicisteis |
| Ellos, ustedes | tuvieron | estuvieron | hicieron |
Notice, that in the irregular verbs the endings with Yo and Él, Ella, Usted are not stressed unlike the regular verbs!
Also:
Quierer – to want, stem: QUIS-, Yo quise
Saber – to know, stem: SUP-, Yo supe
Poder – can, stem: PUD-, Yo pude
Decir – to say, stem DIJ-, yo dije
Dar – to give, stem: D-, Yo di
Traducir – to translate, stem: TRADUJ-, yo traduje
Poner – to put, stem: PUS-, yo puse
Venir – to come, stem: VIN-, yo vine
Dormir – to sleep, stem with Él, Ella, Ud., Ellos, Uds.: DURM-: Él durmió, ellos durmieron
Examples
¿Qué pasó? – What happened?
Yo fui un director – I was a director
Nosotros tratamos de cantar ayer – We tried to sing yesterday
El año pasado Pedro estudió la informática – Pedro studied IT last year
Ella fue al teatro anteayer – She went to the theater the day before yesterday
Nosotros tuvimos los boletos – We had the tickets
¿Vosotros estuvisteis en la conferencia hace una hora? – Have you been to the conference one hour ago?
¿Ustedes practicaron el paracaidismo una vez? – Did you practice skydiving once?
¿Dónde estuviste ayer? – Where were you yesterday?
Este político dijo otras cosas hace ocho años – This politician said other things eight years ago
¿Que bebieron Ustedes en el bar? – What did you drink in the bar?
¿Dónde estuvisteis anoche? – Where were you last night?
¿Con quién bailaste en la fiesta? – With whom did you dance in the party?
¿Por qué saliste temprano? – Why did you leave early?
Yo descargué una programa – I downloaded a program
No supieron nada sobre eso – They didn’t know anything about that
Exercises
Conjugate verbs in appropriate past tense.
- Juan y Maria ________ acá a menudo (CAMINAR – to walk) – Juan and Maria walked here often
- ¿Qué ________ allí ayer? (OCCURRIR – to occur) – What occurred there yesterday?
- Ellos ________ a menudo la comida española (comer – to eat) – They ate Spanish food often
- Yo le ________ poco dinero a de mi amigo anteayer (PRESTAR – to borrow) – I borrowed a little money from my friend the day before yesterday
- Mi madre y yo no lo ________ nunca (SABER – to know) – My mother and I never knew it.
- ¿Quién el dinero? (TENER – to have) – Who had the money?
- Mi amigo ________ mucho en mi casa (DORMIR – to sleep) – My friend slept in my home many times
- El hombre a alguien en la calle hace cinco minutos (LLAMAR – to call) – The man called somebody in the street five minutes ago
- El juego ________ bueno hoy (SER – to be) – The game was good today
- Los niños a veces ________ en la habitación (JUGAR – to play) – The children played in the room sometimes
- Los doctores ________ que ella estaba sano (PENSAR – to think) – The doctors thought that she is healthy
- ¿Qué canción hace un minuto? (ESCUCHAR – to listen) – Which song did you(Tú) listen one minute ago?
- ¿Por qué ella ________ a la tienda tan a menudo? (IR- to go) – What did she go to the store so often?
- Pedro ________ ingeniero por un largo tiempo (SER – to be) – He was an engineer for long time
Answers
1: caminaban, 2: occurrió, 3: comían, 4: presté, 5: supimos, 6: tenía, 7: dormía, 8: llamó, 9: fue, 10: jugaban, 11: pensaron, 12: escuchaste, 13: iba, 14: era