Spanish splits the simple past in two, and the split is not about how long ago something happened. The indefinido reports an event: it happened, it finished, the story moved on. The imperfecto describes the setting: what was going on, what used to happen, what things were like.
The same afternoon, told twice
| Tense | Sentence | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Indefinido | Ayer comí a las dos. | One event, at one point. |
| Imperfecto | De niño comía a las dos. | A habit, with no edges. |
| Indefinido | Empezó a llover. | The rain started — an event. |
| Imperfecto | Llovía cuando salí. | It was raining — the backdrop. |
Most past-tense narration uses both at once: the imperfecto paints the scene, and the indefinido drops events into it.
Era de noche y llovía. De repente, alguien llamó a la puerta.
A test that usually works
Ask whether the sentence answers what happened? or what was it like? The first takes the
indefinido, the second the imperfecto. Time words help too — ayer, anoche and el año pasado
close a period off, while siempre, mientras and de niño leave it open.
Where it gets slippery
Some verbs change meaning rather than aspect:
- supe — I found out · sabía — I knew
- conocí — I met · conocía — I was acquainted with
- quise — I tried · quería — I wanted
In each pair the indefinido reports a moment and the imperfecto reports a state, which is the same rule seen from a different angle.