How to use the past indefinite or the past perfect simple?

Attention, please. The time has come address a very important topic.

We've never dealt with this before, we can't put it off any longer. 

We have to explain to you the forms and uses of the past indefinite.

It is one of the times in simple past in spanish most important, you have to master it no matter what. 

And today you are going to learn how to do it... So brighten up that face! 😁

For the Spanish students, past tenses are always a challenge. The past indefinite is no exception.

In today's article we are going to explain how it is combined, both in the regular and irregular verbs.

We will also see all the uses of the preterite indefinite with examples and some of the most common mistakes What do people commit in this weather, so that you don't do them 😉.

Finally, we will tell you some curiosities of this time that will help you master it better and you will practice with some activities.

Come on, a super article! 

After reading it, you will be able to use this tense in past so important in Spanish.

But the world of the past is not only limited to this time. We have many more!

To learn them correctly, it is best that you attend a school like ours. 

In Hispania, Spanish school We place a lot of emphasis on the past tenses, carefully seeing how they are used, comparing them with other tenses and practicing them in real contexts.

You will not find a school that explains the past better than ours. Insured!

Try a class at ourspanish coursesand you will see it.

And now, let's see what thepast indefinite, one of the most important past tenses in Spanish. 

We start with its shape.

Morphology of the past indefinite

In Spanish we have4 past indicative:

• Perfect tense.
• Imperfect Past.
• Past indefinite or past perfect simple.
• Past pluperfect.

As you can see, this past tense in Spanish has two names:past indefiniteandpast perfect simple.

Surely you have seen them in many grammar books. Now you know that they both mean the same thing 😉.

We usually call itpast indefinite, so as not to confuse it with thepast perfect compound. 

Clarified thename issue, let's see howconjugate this tense in past. We start with the formregular.

past indefinite regular verbs

Theregular form of the past indefiniteIt varies depending on the conjugation. 

We have a form for verbs that end in-arand another for those who end in-er /-go.

We give you the verbsing, move and writeas examples so you can see theendings.

Person	Sing	Move	Write
I	qty-AND	mov-YO	write-YO
You	qty-ASTE	mov-ISTE	write-ISTE
He/She/You	qty-EITHER	mov-IÓ	write-IÓ
We	qty-LOVES	mov-IMOS	write-IMOS
You	qty-ASTEIS	mov-ISTEIS	write-ISTEIS
They/Them/You	qty-ARON	mov-IERON	write-IERON

This is the regular way. 

As you see,-er / -irThey have the same endings. This is always the case withregular verbs.

And what are irregular verbs like? Let's see it now.

Past indefinite irregular verbs

Hepast indefiniteIt is, along with the present, the most irregular tense. 

Also, these irregulars are not always easy to remember… we feel sorry for you 😁.

But you don't have to worry, it's not about memorizing all the irregularities there are.

The best way to learn them is by practicing in real situations, with exercises and speaking.

We are going to put theirregular verbs in the past tensethat are most commonly used.

In addition, we are going to talk to you about some keys so that you remember them better.

We start with theverbbe.

Did you know that the verbbeandgoin the indefinite past tenseDo they combine the same? Two for one, great!

The way is as follows:

Person	Go/Be
I	I went
You	you went
He/She/You	was
We	went
You	you went
They/Them/You	were

And how do we know if it is theverbbeeithergo? Because of the context. 

Look at these examples and you will see:

• YesterdayI wentto the physio for a massage.
• YesterdayI wenta little dry with you, sorry.

From the context, we can understand that the first example is thepast indefinitego, and the second thepast indefinitebe.

Let's see moreirregular verbs.

The indefinite past tense of the verbbe and haveare conjugated in the same way, with the ending-uv:

Person	Be	Have
I	I have been	I had
You	you were	you had
He/She/You	was	had
We	we were	we had
You	you were	you had
They/Them/You	were	they had

The verbswantandputThey are similar in that they are conjugated with the consonant-s:

Person	Want	Put
I	I wanted	I put
You	you wanted	you put
He/She/You	wanted	put
We	we wanted	we put
You	you wanted	you put
They/Them/You	they wanted	they put

Verbs that end in-cirandbringthey are conjugated with the letter-j.

Person	Say	Drive	Translate	Bring
I	said	I drove	I translated	suit
You	you said	you drove	you translated	you brought
He/She/You	said	led	translated	brought
We	we said	we drove	we translated	we brought
You	you said	you drove	you translated	you brought
They/Them/You	they said	they drove	they translated	they brought

Verbs that have two vowels together before the infinitive are irregular only in the third person, which adds the-and.

Let's see it withbelieve,readandfall.

Person	Believe	Read	Fall
I	I grew up	read	fell
You	you believed	you read	you fell
He/She/You	believeANDeither	youANDeither	ACANDeither
We	we believed	we read	we fell
You	you believed	you read	you fell
They/Them/You	believeANDwere	youANDwere	ACANDwere

And the verbdoin the indefinite past tensehow is? It has a vowel change, the-tochange for-Yo. 

Furthermore, in the third person singular the-cby-zto keep the sound.

Person	Do
I	I did
You	you did
He/She/You	did
We	we did
You	you did
They/Them/You	they did

And the verbseein the indefinite past tense? Is it irregular?

Well not really. It's regular, we remove the termination-erand we combine thevwith regular endings:

Person	See
I	I saw
You	you saw
He/She/You	saw
We	we saw
You	you saw
They/Them/You	they saw

We have already seen manyirregular verbs of the preterite indefinite. As you can see, there are many types, it is not a simple topic.

Is it possible to learn them without going crazy 😵‍💫? If possible.

Be very patient, study them a little every day and practice them, especially in conversations.

Little by little you will assimilate them 🧠.

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Uses of the past indefinite tense in Spanish

Now let's see how to use this time. 

In total it has4 uses, and you will see how simple they are.

They are the following:

exact past

We use thepreteriteindefinitefortalk about past actions and finishedat a specific time.

That is, we know exactlywhen an action happened.

How do we know they are accurate? Because of the temporal markers. 

We like to call themkeywords, since they tell you the time you have to use.

There are many keywords for the past indefinite tense. 

We are going to classify you in the following table with examples:

days gone by	make + quantity	noun + past	past months	past years
yesterday day before yesterday the other day on thursday on Monday etc	2 days ago 3 weeks ago 5 months ago 8 years ago etc	last week last month last year last saturday etc	in july in september in November etc past seasons in summer in winter etc	in 1978 in 1990 in 2011 in 2022 etc

Do you want to see some examples of sentences with thesekeywords? Here they go!

• Yesterday I saw Sergio and spoke with him.
• 3 weeks ago I was on vacation.
• Last month you signed up for bachata classes.
• In September we start our Spanish classes.
• She was born in 1999.

If you notice, the verb in example 3 isthoughtful. We haven't talked about this before, but we simply want to tell you that the idea is the same as in the present.

You need to use thepersonal pronounsand conjugate the verb in the indicated tense, in this case, past indefinite.

For example, the verb sign up would be like this:

I signed up

you signed up

He/she/you signed up

We sign up

You signed up

They signed up

Past actions in chronological order

The past actions in chronological order is a use very common of the past indefinite what we all do when we narrate an event or we tell a story.

Although it may seem complicated, it is actually very simple.

It is only the successive use of past verbs in Spanish that advance a story or event.

For example, imagine that someone asks you what you did yesterday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

In those 5 hours you probably did several things, so you are going to narrate the actions you did in chronological order.

«Yesterday at 5:00 p.m. I finished my classes at the university. I came back home and I took some snack After I went down to the supermarket to do the shopping. At 7:00 p.m. I stayed with my friends and we went to see a movie At 10:00 p.m. I went out of cinema and I came back home."

Specific actions in the past

Specific actions are actions that They didn't happen repeatedly. in the past.

They happened very few times, were not common, but they were important or impactful and that is why we remember them.

To talk about specific past actions that only happened once, we usually use the keywords once and one day.

• As a child, Roberto broke his leg once.
• one day I found a 500 euro bill on the street. It hasn't happened to me again.

distant past

The last use of the past indefinite is that of distant past. This use refers to a time in the past that we have already mentioned before. 

As we already know what time it refers to, it is mentioned with the demonstrative andse / that + noun.

It can be a year, a month, a day. etc

Examples:

• In 2018 I did my Erasmus. that year I met a lot of people.
• Noelia stopped smoking in October. that month He also started playing sports.

Common mistakes

You have already seen how the past indefinite tense is formed and used. Brilliant! You already know the most important thing.

But the article does not end here.

Now let's see the most typical errors that students usually commit in this weather. 

Knowing and understanding these mistakes will help you not make them ☝🏻.

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Confusion of the first and third person singular form

The way of i and he/she can be a little confusing, especially in the conjugation of verbs that end in -ar.

The way of i ends in -he, and that of he/she/you in -ó.

Examples: 

• Yesterday I I spoke with José.
• Yesterday he spoke with José.

Where does the confusion come from? The confusion occurs because the first person singular in present of verbs that end in -ar It is also formed with -o.

Example: 

• I I speak Spanish.

Therefore, in the third person singular of the indefinite past tense, the -o goes with an accent. The pronunciation is different.

The accent is key

The accent It is a very important resource that is used in different tenses.

Thanks to it, we can differentiate exactly what time we are talking about in cases where there is confusion.

We have already seen one in the previous point. But there is another one with the first person singular that ends in -ar.

These verbs end in -e, with an accent. 

In present subjunctive, the first person singular of verbs ending in -ar, is also conjugated with the -e.

To differentiate them, we put the accent again in the indefinite past tense. 

Look at it with some examples:

• last year I traveled a lot (past indefinite).
• I wish trip more this year (present subjunctive).

Do you not know well the accentuation rules in Spanish? 

Take a look at our article and that will no longer be a problem

The way of you does not carry -S in the end

Another frequent error of the past indefinite tense occurs in the form of you.

Many people (even the Spanish) add a -s in the end. 

That's it totally wrong.

Don't make that mistake, no matter how much you hear it on the street 🙈.

• Yesterday I you said that you would come to the party. ❌
• Yesterday I you said that you would come to the party. ✅

The second sentence is the correct one 👍🏻.

Curiosities of the indefinite past tense

Finally, we wanted to tell you some curiosities of the indefinite past tense that is good to know.

The first is the one we talked about at the beginning: the names.

Remember that this time can be called past perfect simple or past indefinite. Both are correct and name the same time.  

Another thing that is worth knowing is that this is one of the times that most irregular verbs has. 

So if you've gotten a little stressed over the list of verbs before, don't get overwhelmed. It's not usual.

Normally Spanish does not have so many irregularities 🙈.

Another curious thing is that the first person plural (us) of regular verbs that end in -ar It is the same as in the present.

To differentiate time, it is necessary to look at the context and keywords.

Example:

• yesterday we talk with his parents.
• now we talk with his parents.

Let's practice!

You've already seen everything you need to know about the past indefinite tense. Congratulations!

But you can't leave here without putting into practice what you've learned. 

We have two prepared exercises of the indefinite past tense for you.

The first is easy, it is an exercise to mechanize the form of the past indefinite. Write the correct form of the infinitive in parentheses.

In the next activity, you are going to have to think a little more. You must choose the appropriate infinitive for each sentence and write it in the past indefinite. Luck!

If you had problems with the past indefinite tense, this article has surely been valuable to you.

You can return to it whenever you need. 

And if you really want to take a giant step in your Spanish learning, remember that we offer in-person and online courses at Hispania, Spanish school.

What do you think of the past indefinite tense? Do you think its reputation for complexity is exaggerated?

If you have any questions or suggestions, do not hesitate to use the comments box to write them.

Good day!

Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school. 

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