Spanish Past Tenses - Your Complete Guide
Preterite tense is your go-to for completed actions in the past - think of it as the Spanish equivalent of "...ed". Remove the infinitive ending and add the new endings: for AR verbs, use é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron. For ER/IR verbs, use í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron.
The imperfect tense describes what "used to" happen or ongoing past actions. AR verbs take aba, abas, aba, ábamos, abais, aban, whilst ER/IR verbs use ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían. Notice how the stress marks appear in specific places!
Perfect tense works just like English "have done" something. Combine the auxiliary verb haber (he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han) with past participles ending in -ado (AR verbs) or -ido ER/IRverbs.
Past continuous expresses actions that "were happening" using estar in the imperfect (estaba, estabas, estaba, estábamos, estabais, estaban) plus gerunds ending in -ando (AR) or -iendo ER/IR. Finally, pluperfect tense means "had done" something, using había, habías, había, habíamos, habíais, habían plus those same past participles.
Top Tip: Using a variety of these tenses in your answers will impress examiners and show sophisticated language skills - don't just stick to one!