That said, you can combine the single word examples with more specific information to make them a phrase.įor example, the first option is ayer (yesterday), you can make this a phrase by describing a more specific part of yesterday such as ayer por la mañana (yesterday during the morning). Now, I did say that the examples below are Spanish phrases but some of the options are just single words. Spanish phrases that trigger the past simple tense If, on the other hand, an event didn’t have a clearly defined start and end or continues into the present moment then you need to use the past imperfect or present perfect respectively.Īs you’ll see shortly, the ‘phrase triggers’ below establish a defined start and end for an event, thus naturally triggering the use of the Spanish past simple. The graph is demonstrating that whenever a past event has a clearly defined start and end time-where the end is not the present moment-you should use the past simple tense.
I recently put together a post on the pretérito imperfectowhich included the following graph to demonstrate the difference between the two main Spanish past tenses: For an audio explanation of the past simple tense check out this podcast episode. An overview of the Spanish past simple tenseįirstly, I’ll quickly go over the past simple tense also known as the Spanish preterite or pretérito indefinido.
LAST YEAR IN SPANISH PDF
Printable Version: Download this PDF version of the 15 Spanish Phrases that Trigger the Past Simple Tense to use as a study reference. For the phrases in this post, the exceptions are only likely to occur when you are talking about a sequence of events in the past (I’ll do a post on this soon) or for making a guess about what might have happened in the past. I say ‘nearly’ because there are always exceptions. In this post, you’ll learn 15 Spanish phrases that nearly guarantee the use of the Spanish past simple tense. If so, you’ll probably need to use the Spanish past simple tense. While in the moment of decision, consider if any of the Spanish phrases below fit into your sentence. Often when discussing past events, you may find yourself trying to decide between the past imperfect ( pretérito imperfecto), the past simple ( pretérito indefinido) or even other past Spanish tenses. In Spanish, there are, what I will call, ‘phrase triggers’ that enforce the use of a certain tense. When talking about past events in Spanish, you have an important choice to make-which Spanish past tense should you use?įortunately, this choice becomes much simpler when you consider a few key Spanish phrases for talking about the past.
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