-In Spanish, we have more than one forms of past, the preterit simple is used when the action is finished and you don't need more information:
Yo comí............I ate
Yo salté............I jumped
To make the preteit simple of a verb that finish with ar just remove ar en ad é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron:
from cantar(to sing):
yo canté...................I sang
tu cantaste...............you sang
el cantó....................he/she sang
nosotros cantamos...we sang
vosotros cantasteis..you sang
ellos cantaron..........they sang
To make it from a verb that finish with er and ir (like comer-to eat)or(like salir to leave) just remove er and ir and ad í, iste, ó, imos, isteis, eron
But remember that these ruls just work with a regular verbs ex: the verb tener(to have) his past simple is this
Yo tuve..............I had
tu tuviste
el tuvo
nosotros tuvimos
vosotros tuvisteis
ellos tuvieron
-The pretérito imperfecto is used when we are talking about the past that do not have a clear begining or end.
I know that for English speakers is not easy to understand becouse , the pretérito imperfecto can be translated a number of ways in english:
caminábamos por la calle.....ayer por la noche---- we were walking yesterday at night
.....mientras él hablaba--- while he was speaking
.....cuando ocurrió------ when this happend
yo corría cuando era niño-----------I used to run when i was a child
As you can see you can translate the pretérito imperfecto in lot of English past forms but just when you need more information we use the pretérito imperfecto in spanish
Yo compré................................I bought (here you don't need more information)
Yo estaba comprando...............I was buying while......(here you need more information here you need the pretérito imperfecto)
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