The Imperfect and Preterit Indicative Past Tenses

The student will notice that the second and third conjugations have the same endings. With the exception of four forms mentioned in 444, there are really only two conjugations.

Adding the above endings to the stems of the three regular verbs of 16, we have imperfect and preterit indicative of the three conjugations:

54. Use of Imperfect and Preterit.

a. The imperfect indicative is used (1) to express continuous or customary action in past time and (2) to express an action in past time which was occurring when another intervened.

1. Cuando yo vivía en Madrid hablaba español todo el tiempo.
When I lived (or was living) in Madrid I spoke (or used to speak) Spanish all the time. Siempre Comíamos en el café. We always used to eat at the restaurant.

2. La madre trabajaba cuando yo la vi. The mother was working when I saw her. Hablaban a mi padre cuando IIegamos. They were speaking to my father when we arrived.

b. The preterit indicative is used to express definite past action, taken as a whole, with no idea of the duration of the time involved.

Compré uno zapatos para mi hijo. I bought a pair of shoes for my son.
¿Dónde comió usted ayer? where did you eat yesterday?
Comí en casa de Carlos y hablé con su padre. I ate at Charles house and spoke with his father.