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Past tenses in Spanish https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/spanish…

- - - - This second past action will normally need the preterite. It’s usually used to say that someone was doing such and such a thing (imperfect), when all of a sudden something happened (preterite).
      - Example
        
        Yo dormía cuando el teléfono sonó.
        
        (I was sleeping when the telephone rang.)
        
        OR
        
        Yo estaba durmiendo cuando el teléfono sonó.
        
        Ella leía cuando llegué.
        
        (She was reading when I arrived.)
        
        OR
        
        Ella estaba leyendo cuando llegué.
        
        Cuando empezó a llover estábamos en el parque.
        
        (We were in the park when it started raining.)
      - In fact, it’s very common to see the imperfect of estar followed by the gerund in these contexts:
  - - - More often than not, you will be able to translate the imperfect as “used to + infinitive” in these kinds of sentences:
      - De pequeño solía leer mucho.
        
        (I used to read a lot when I was a child)
      - (Note that in Spanish you can just say “De pequeño” or “De joven” (When I was young). You don’t have to say, even though you can, “Cuando era pequeño” or “Cuando era joven.”)
      - Solía ir a casa de mis abuelos cada sábado.
        
        (I used to go to my grandparents’ house every Saturday.)
      - De joven me gustaba montar en bici.
        
        (I used to like riding a bike when I was young.)
  - - - La casa era grande y tenía tres balcones.
        
        (The house was big and had three balconies.)
      - El niño era muy guapo.
        
        (The boy was very handsome.)
      - El agua estaba demasiado fría.
        
        (The water was too cold.)
  - - - The expression “Cuando tenía X años” (When I was X years old) will come in handy:
      - Cuando tenía 10 años me rompí una pierna.
        
        (When I was 10 years old I broke my leg.)
      - Fui a EE.UU. cuando tenía 15 años.
        
        (I went to the States when I was 15 years old.)
      - Aprendí a leer cuando tenía dos años.
        
        (I learned how to read when I was two years old.)
  - - - Imagine you open a window through which you can see what happened in the past. Every action taking place at the moment you open the “window of the past” will be expressed by using the imperfect.
      - So now open that window, and you will see that…
      - Los niños jugaban al fútbol.
        
        (The children were playing football.)
      - Mi hermano descansaba.
        
        (My brother was getting some rest.)
      - Yo leía un libro.
        
        (I was reading a book.)
  - - - Eran las 12:00 cuando llamaste.
        
        (It was 12:00 when you called.)
      - Cuando me desperté eran las 7:00.
        
        (It was 7:00 when I woke up.)
      - Era muy tarde cuando volví a casa.
        
        (It was very late when I came back home.)
- - - - De pequeño comía helado muy a menudo.
        
        (I often ate ice cream when I was a child.)
    - - Algunas veces mi madre no me dejaba comerlo.
        
        (At times my mother would not let me eat it.)
    - - A veces escuchaba a los Beatles.
        
        (Sometimes I listened to the Beatles.)
    - - Cuando era joven iba de fiesta cada día.
        
        (I used to go partying every day when I was young.)
    - - Frecuentemente volvía a casa tarde.
        
        (I frequently came back home late.)
    - - (Casi) nunca tenía dinero.
        
        (I (almost) never had any money.)
    - - Era muy buen estudiante en aquel tiempo.
        
        (I was a very good student at that time.)
    - - Tú estudiabas mientras yo limpiaba.
        
        (You were studying while I was cleaning.)
    - - Muchas veces no sabía qué responder.
        
        (Many times I didn’t know what to answer.)
    - - De pequeño iba a la escuela todos los días.
        
        (I used to go to school every day when I was a child.)
    - - Ella lloraba todo el tiempo.
        
        (She used to cry all the time.)
    - - Solía terminar de trabajar a las 4 de la tarde.
        
        (I used to finish work at 4 p.m.)
      - Mi hermana solía jugar con muñecas.
        
        (My sister used to play with dolls.)
      - Solíamos ir al cine cada viernes.
        
        (We used to go to the cinema every Friday.)
- - - - Mi hermano volvió a las 8. (My brother came back at 8:00.)
      - Ayer comí manzanas. (I ate some apples yesterday.)
      - Juan me dijo la verdad. (Juan told me the truth.)
      - Me mudé a Polonia en 2007. (I moved to Poland in 2007.)
  - - - Me duché, desayuné y me fui al trabajo. (I took a shower, had breakfast and went to work.)
      - Llamé a mi madre, saqué al perro a pasear y me fui a dormir. (I called mom, took the dog for a walk and went to sleep.)
      - Abrió la carta, la leyó y la tiró a la basura. (He opened the letter, read it and threw it into the trash.)
  - - - Fui a la universidad durante cuatro años. (I went to college for four years.)
      - Me leí ese libro en tres días. (I read that book in three days.)
      - Viví en Barcelona durante siete meses. (I lived in Barcelona for seven months.)
  - - - La semana pasada fui de compras tres veces. (I went shopping three times last week.)
      - Anoche me desperté dos veces. (I woke up twice last night.)
      - Mis vecinos pintaron la casa seis veces el año pasado. (My neighbors had their house painted six times last year.)
  - - - Estaba soltero hasta que un día conocí a María. (I was single until one day I met María.)
      - Todo estaba en su sitio hasta que llegaste. (Everything was in its place until you arrived.)
      - No quería tener hijos pero de un día para el otro cambié de opinión. (I did not want to have children, but I changed my mind overnight.)
- - - - a.
        
        andar → anduv-
        
        caber → cup-
        
        estar → estuv-
        
        haber → hub-
        
        hacer → hic-
        
        poder → pud-
        
        poner → pus-
        
        querer → quis-
        
        venir → vin-
        
        saber → sup-
        
        tener → tuv-
      - b.
        
        All of these verbs add the same endings to their stems, which is something to be thankful for:
        
        -e
        
        -iste
        
        -o
        
        -ieron
        
        -imos
        
        -isteis
      - c.
        
        Pay special attention to the first and third person singular. You may be tempted to add an accent mark like we do with regular -AR verbs, but in this case you don’t.
      - d. EXAMPLE
        
        conjugate The verb hacer (to do, to make), since it’s the only one of this entire group that has a small irregularity:
        
        hicisteis
        
        hice (no accent!)
        
        hiciste
        
        hizo (no accent!)
        
        The third person singular changes to hiz-.
        
        hicieron
        
        hicimos
  - - - When dealing with sentences in the preterite, you’ll know which verb is being used based on content.
      - fuiste
      - fue
      - fueron
      - fui
      - fuisteis
      - fuimos
    - - “Ayer fui a una fiesta.”
        
        We cannot translate this as “I was at a party yesterday” because we use estar in this kind of context (Ayer estuve en una fiesta), so the only possible translation here is “I went to a party yesterday.”
      - “Ayer fui el ganador.”
        
        This can only mean I was the winner yesterday, since you don’t “go to a winner.”
  - - - a.
        
        -je
        
        -jiste
        
        -jo -
        
        jeron
        
        -jisteis
        
        -jimos
      - b.
        
        Note that there is no accent in the third person singular -jo ending. Here are traer and traducir conjugated:
        
        traje trajimos
        
        trajiste trajisteis
        
        trajo trajeron
        
        tradujiste tradujisteis
        
        traduje tradujimos
        
        tradujo tradujeron
      - c.
        
        Remember that decir keeps its vowel change (e → i) from the present tense (decir → digo) in all the persons:
        
        dije
        
        dijiste
        
        dijo
        
        dijimos
        
        dijeron
        
        dijisteis