Preterit Tense
El tiempo pretérito. The preterit tense of the indicative mood is used for past actions which the speaker views as single, completed actions.
Sample Sentences:
- Bailamos dos horas. (We danced for two hours.)
- No me mandó el documento. (He didn't send me the document.)
- Se besaron. (They kissed each other.)
Both the preterit tense and the imperfect tense talk about actions in the past, but they are not interchangeable. Instead, they describe different aspects of what might be the same action. When a speaker chooses the preterit tense, they're saying that they see the object as a simple completed action, regardless of how long the process actually took.
