Spanish grammar lessons › Level B1 › Preterite vs imperfect

Narrating the past: all three past tenses together

Tell a story with the imperfect for the scene, the preterite for events and the pluperfect for what came before.

Part of the free B1 Spanish course. Press the speaker next to an example to hear it.

You now know three past tenses: the preterite (Preterite of regular verbs), the imperfect (The imperfect: forms and uses) and the pluperfect (The pluperfect: había hablado). A real story uses all three, often in the same sentence. Each one has a job.

Tense	Job in a story	Question it answers
Imperfect (llovía, estaba)	the scene: background, description, what was going on, habits	What was it like?
Preterite (se levantó, bajó)	the events that move the story forward	What happened next?
Pluperfect (se habían ido)	what had happened before the story's moment	What had already happened?

A short story

Read it once for meaning, then look at each verb.

Era un sábado de noviembre y llovía sin parar.It was a Saturday in November and it was raining non-stop.
Lucía estaba sola en casa porque sus padres se habían ido a la boda de un primo.Lucía was home alone because her parents had gone to a cousin's wedding.
Leía una novela en el sofá cuando, de repente, se fue la luz.She was reading a novel on the sofa when suddenly the power went out.
Se levantó, buscó una linterna y bajó a la cocina.She got up, looked for a torch and went down to the kitchen.
Allí descubrió que alguien había dejado abierta la puerta del jardín.There she discovered that someone had left the garden door open.
La cerró con llave y volvió al sofá.She locked it and went back to the sofa.
Media hora después volvió la luz, y Lucía siguió leyendo.Half an hour later the power came back, and Lucía carried on reading.

Era, llovía, estaba, leía: the scene (imperfect).
Se habían ido, había dejado: things that happened before the scene (pluperfect).
Se fue la luz, se levantó, buscó, bajó, descubrió, cerró, volvió, siguió: the chain of events (preterite). You could number them.

Habits, then one event

A very common story shape: describe what used to happen, then tell what happened one day.

De pequeño, pasaba los veranos en el pueblo de mis abuelos.As a child, I spent my summers in my grandparents' village.
Todas las mañanas iba al río con mis primos.Every morning I went to the river with my cousins.
Un día, mi primo Andrés se cayó al agua y tuvimos que sacarlo.One day, my cousin Andrés fell into the water and we had to pull him out.

Signal words

Scene and habit (imperfect): mientras, siempre, todos los días, de pequeño, normalmente, cada verano.
Events (preterite): de repente, un día, en ese momento, entonces, al final, luego (Sequencing a story: primero, luego, después, al final).
Earlier events (pluperfect): ya, todavía no, nunca … antes.

They are hints, not rules. Always ask what the verb is doing in the story.

Today's story in Spain

In Spain, a story about today (or this week) often uses the present perfect for the events: Esta mañana he perdido el autobús y he llegado tarde. As soon as the time frame is ayer, el año pasado or a story with no link to now, the preterite takes over.

Latin America

The imperfect and pluperfect work the same way. For events, most of Latin America uses the preterite even for today: Esta mañana perdí el autobús y llegué tarde. Both are correct in their region.

Common mistakes

Putting every verb in the preterite: ~~Fue un sábado y llovió. Lucía estuvo sola~~. Background needs the imperfect: Era un sábado y llovía.
Putting the main events in the imperfect: ~~Se levantaba, buscaba una linterna y bajaba~~ means she used to do this. A one-off sequence is preterite.
Forgetting the step back: ~~Descubrió que alguien dejó la puerta abierta~~ is heard, but había dejado makes the order clear.
Time and age in the past are always imperfect: Eran las tres, Tenía diez años.

Practice

_____ las tres de la madrugada y todo el barrio dormía.
It was three in the morning and the whole neighbourhood was asleep.
Options: Eran · Fueron · Habían sido
Show the answer
Eran — Time in a story is background: imperfect, plural with las tres.
Mi bisabuelo _____ (ser) pescador y vivía junto al puerto.
My great-grandfather was a fisherman and lived by the harbour.
Show the answer
era — A description of what he was like: imperfect.
Cuando abrí la nevera, vi que mi compañero de piso se _____ (comer) mi yogur.
When I opened the fridge, I saw that my flatmate had eaten my yogurt.
Show the answer
había comido — He ate it before I opened the fridge: pluperfect.
Pedro _____ por el parque cuando empezó a granizar.
Pedro was walking through the park when it started to hail.
Options: paseaba · paseó · había paseado
Show the answer
paseaba — The action in progress is imperfect; the event that interrupts it is preterite.

In the app, this lesson is taught one idea at a time with the examples read aloud, followed by questions that explain the rule when you get one wrong. It then comes back for review on later days, until you've answered it correctly on three separate days.

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