📌 Indefinite, Imperfect, Perfect or Pluperfect?
In Spanish, we choose past tenses depending on how we see the action, not just when it happened.
🔹 Preterite (pretérito indefinido)
We use it for actions that move the story forward.
👉 Ayer llegué, hablé con el jefe y firmé el contrato.
(Yesterday I arrived, spoke to the boss and signed the contract.)
🔹 Imperfect (pretérito imperfecto)
We use it to describe the background, circumstances or what was going on.
👉 Era tarde y la oficina estaba vacía.
(It was late and the office was empty.)
🔹 Present perfect (pretérito perfecto)
We use it for past actions that are connected to the present.
👉 He enviado el correo, así que ahora podemos esperar la respuesta.
(I have sent the email, so now we can wait for the answer.)
🔹 Pluperfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto)
It shows that one action happened before another past action.
👉 Cuando llegué, ya había enviado el informe.
(When I arrived, I had already sent the report.)
🧠 Key idea:
The preterite moves the story, the imperfect sets the scene, the perfect connects the past with now, and the pluperfect looks further back.
