Preterite Tense

El Tiempo Pretérito

Also known as the simple past tense, the Spanish preterite tense describes actions that took place in the past and were completed in the past.

It is often confused with the imperfect tense, which describes on going, past events.

The examples below illustrate the difference with the verb comer (to eat):

Preterite
Él comió
He ate.

Imperfect
Él comia.
He was eating. Conjugation Trainer >

Moods and Tenses

Modos y tiempos verbales

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