contrast.preterite-imperfect
Preterite vs imperfect: event vs background
Preterite advances the story (llegué, vi, firmé); imperfect paints the scene (llovía, era tarde, había gente). Some verbs change translation: supe/sabía, pude/podía, quise/quería.
contrastB1✓ Reviewedv0.1.0
Explanation
The two simple past tenses divide the work of talking about the past. The preterite (indefinido) reports bounded, completed events — it moves the story forward: llegué, vi, firmé, empezó. The imperfect paints the background — what was ongoing, habitual, or descriptive: llovía, era tarde, había gente, de niño jugaba al fútbol.
The classic combination puts a scene in the imperfect and the event against it in the preterite: mientras leía (background), sonó el teléfono (event); vivíamos en Montreal cuando nació mi hija. Ask whether the action is a single finished point (preterite) or a continuing situation (imperfect).
A handful of verbs even change their English translation with the tense, because one reads as a state and the other as a sudden event: sabía 'knew' / supe 'found out'; conocía 'knew (a person)' / conocí 'met'; podía 'was able' / pude 'managed to'; quería 'wanted' / quise 'tried', no quise 'refused'; tenía 'had' / tuve 'got, received'.
Examples
We were living in Montreal when my daughter was born.
Region: global
I refused to sign without reading it.
Region: global
It was night and everyone was sleeping when the alarm went off.