Free practice

Preterite vs imperfect

Fui or era, tuve or tenía: the two past tenses side by side, then a game that mixes them.

Choosing between the pretérito perfecto simple and the imperfecto is a grammar question, but getting the form wrong is what gives you away. Both tenses sit at A2, and the irregular preterites (fui, tuve, hice, pude) have to be memorised.

The game shows one form and asks whether it belongs to the tense on the card. With exactly these two tenses selected, every wrong form comes from the other one, which is the confusion you want to train.

Play True or False with these tenses

Three questions a round, all 48 verbs, the tenses of this page preselected.

The tenses on this page

2 tenses

Indicativo

Pretérito Perfecto Simple

A2
Indicativo

Pretérito Imperfecto

A2

Example tables

From the free tables of the 48 verbs. Open a verb for all twenty tenses.

Serto be (permanent)

Pretérito Perfecto Simple

A2
Ser: Indicativo, Pretérito Perfecto Simple
yofui
túfuiste
él/ella/Ud.fue
nosotrosfuimos
vosotrosfuisteis
ellos/ellas/Uds.fueron

Pretérito Imperfecto

A2
Ser: Indicativo, Pretérito Imperfecto
yoera
túeras
él/ella/Ud.era
nosotroséramos
vosotroserais
ellos/ellas/Uds.eran

Irto go, to move

Pretérito Perfecto Simple

A2
Ir: Indicativo, Pretérito Perfecto Simple
yofui
túfuiste
él/ella/Ud.fue
nosotrosfuimos
vosotrosfuisteis
ellos/ellas/Uds.fueron

Pretérito Imperfecto

A2
Ir: Indicativo, Pretérito Imperfecto
yoiba
túibas
él/ella/Ud.iba
nosotrosíbamos
vosotrosibais
ellos/ellas/Uds.iban

Tenerto have, to hold

Pretérito Perfecto Simple

A2
Tener: Indicativo, Pretérito Perfecto Simple
yotuve
tútuviste
él/ella/Ud.tuvo
nosotrostuvimos
vosotrostuvisteis
ellos/ellas/Uds.tuvieron

Pretérito Imperfecto

A2
Tener: Indicativo, Pretérito Imperfecto
yotenía
tútenías
él/ella/Ud.tenía
nosotrosteníamos
vosotrosteníais
ellos/ellas/Uds.tenían

The 48 verbs in these tenses

Each link opens the full table of the verb at the right mood.

More practice pages

Every tense in the app

The app trains the same tenses with 12 000 verbs, five games and a map that shows which tense to learn next.