One concept that throws most, if not all, native English speakers for a loop when learning Spanish is differentiating between these two tenses. In English we don't use different tenses to denote some of the various ideas being expressed. In Spanish the word was in ¨It was a beautiful day¨ could be translated differently depending on the context of that sentence.
When first learning about the imperfect and preterite in Spanish, the usual approach involves breaking down usage of them into concepts like the following:
Preterite - isolated events, events done a specified number of times, interrupting action
Imperfect - background information, weather, habitual events, time, age, ¨was/were- ing¨, descriptions
Then, students are shown sentences with the two being used in the above manner. So, for example, they would see sentences like:
Era las dos de la mañana. Muchas veces yo iba al con mis abuelos.
Recibí un regalo para mi cumpleaños. Toda la familia fue a ver la película.
The last step is writing or talking about something in the past and using the two forms correctly. On an exam a student might fill in some blanks with the correct verb form
One of the difficulties though is that two sentences could have the exact same wording, and, depending on the writer's meaning, either verb form would work. An example taken from my favorite Spanish grammar book A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish is:
Habló durante tres horas and Hablaba durante tres horas.
Both sentences are possible. The first would be translated as ¨She talked for three hours¨ while the second would be ¨She used to talk for three hours (a bunch of different times).
The distinction can be pretty subtle and creates some challenges for the English speaker. Ultimately, as most concepts with Spanish and language learning in general, getting around native speakers, hearing different ideas being conveyed, and then producing on your own helps most with the understanding of it.
When first learning about the imperfect and preterite in Spanish, the usual approach involves breaking down usage of them into concepts like the following:
Preterite - isolated events, events done a specified number of times, interrupting action
Imperfect - background information, weather, habitual events, time, age, ¨was/were- ing¨, descriptions
Then, students are shown sentences with the two being used in the above manner. So, for example, they would see sentences like:
Era las dos de la mañana. Muchas veces yo iba al con mis abuelos.
Recibí un regalo para mi cumpleaños. Toda la familia fue a ver la película.
The last step is writing or talking about something in the past and using the two forms correctly. On an exam a student might fill in some blanks with the correct verb form
One of the difficulties though is that two sentences could have the exact same wording, and, depending on the writer's meaning, either verb form would work. An example taken from my favorite Spanish grammar book A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish is:
Habló durante tres horas and Hablaba durante tres horas.
Both sentences are possible. The first would be translated as ¨She talked for three hours¨ while the second would be ¨She used to talk for three hours (a bunch of different times).
The distinction can be pretty subtle and creates some challenges for the English speaker. Ultimately, as most concepts with Spanish and language learning in general, getting around native speakers, hearing different ideas being conveyed, and then producing on your own helps most with the understanding of it.