Spanish Past Tense: Preterite vs Imperfect

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In this video you will learn some intermediate level grammar. We will teach you when and how to use the preterite and the imperfect in Spanish. You will be able to sound like a native Spanish speaker!

If you are an absolute beginner Spanish learner, this video is made for you. Our host express herself in simple Spanish and English. This video will challenge your listening comprehension skills and help you progress in your Spanish language study. This is THE place to start if you want to start learning Mexican Spanish.

Also, please LIKE, SHARE and COMMENT on our videos! We really appreciate it. Thanks!

[heyyou]

Some Spanish teachers really aren’t qualified to teach. I couldn’t understand this for a whole month and I watch two YouTube videos and I’m fine with it now

[kevooo]

Preterite: moves the story forward
Imperfect: describes the setting or characters of a story

[jacobs]

Lol who else has a test the next day. 👌

[rebeccacraig]

Your accent is so cool! Its like a mix of a british accent and a spanish accent 😊

[confusedpotato]

wait what this actually makes sense, , , , I was seriously going off of google translate before because I had no idea what the reasons that my teacher gave meant (like what the heck does "beginning/ending action" "sequence" "interruption" "habitual actions" etc. mean-) and this makes so much more sense now, thank you!

[dewinmoonl]

Perfect explanation. You start with the motivation and WHY you'd use one form vs another. Other bad videos starts with HOW to conjugate and throw rules at you which is useless if you don't know the reason for when to apply the rules.

Instant sub.

[cbsteffen]

When contrasting preterite and imperfect tense in Spanish, you also should note that because they are two different tenses, they sometimes affect the meaning of verbs. In the preterite tense, “saber” (to know as in know any fact) means found out, “conocer” (to know as in have familiarity with) means met, and “querer” (to want or to love) when preceded by a negative means refused to do something (in other words therefore did not do the deed).

[RastaDoff]

I've been teaching myself Spanish for 3-4 years, and have always struggled with the difference between these. This video made it beyond clear! Honestly, don't know why it isn't explained like this across the board!

[jazzym]

Wow, in 4.5 minutes, I have learned something that I have been trying to figure out since September haha. Thank you!

[NathalieTravelMuse]

NO ONE ever explained it this way and now it makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE. 🥵 Thank you !!!

[michelleramirez]

I speak Spanish and I'd never realised how difficult it is to speak it😂😂😂 thanks god for making me Spanish ladjakalala

[brookeibarra]

So helpful! I've been struggling with this for a whole year and you just solved it in 4 minutes! Gracias!

[Skiis]

Wow. This is fantastic. I have been stuck on this for a year. I knew that preterite was finished action, but nebulous on the rest. This makes it so easy. Got the verb endings memorized and the irregulars memorized. This moves me past a huge stumbling block. Thanks so much.

[kimberlygutierrez]

Honestly this did more for me than my spanish teacher did in a week.

[Emma-xhwt]

I have read so many different explanations of these two past tenses but I just can't understand it... This video on the other hand is the only explanation I understand hahah, thank you so much!

[magicdeknight]

Thank you I was lost before watching your video.

[hammads]

So glad you made this. Everyone is always speaking Spanish while teaching - not everyone can learn from that.

[KuldeepKumar-tmjd]

Hacía poco calor, era a las diez y cuarenta y cinco. Tenía un duda sobre este tema. De repente yo vi tu video y entendí este tema. Gracias!!

[TheBreadPirate]

This explained it really well! I understand it much better now.

[cindys]

WOW. Thanks so much! It made things a lot clearer. I wrecked my brain with these 2 tenses!!!