5.1 Translating the Past Tenses from Spanish to English

Considering Spanish has two past tenses (the preterite hablé, comí and the imperfect hablaba, comía) for English’s one past tense (I talked, I ate), it can be much more complicated to translate from English to Spanish using the past tenses than from Spanish to English. In this section, we will explore how some verbs in Spanish have a special meaning when used in the preterite tense and how the Spanish imperfect tense is not always translated into the past simple in English. These points will be important to keep in mind when translating from Spanish to English.

a) Translating the Spanish Preterite Tense to English

The preterite tense is used to describe actions that have been completed in the past. It can be used to refer to one action or a series of actions, but there is always emphasis on the action being completed. The preterite tense is normally translated to the past simple form in English.

As a reminder, the Spanish preterite tense has two verb patterns for regular verb conjugations:

AR verbs (for example: llamar)

yo                   llamé            nosotros                    llamamos
tú                    llamaste
él/ella/usted    llamó            ellos/ellas/ustedes    llamaron

ER/ IR verbs (for example: vivir)
             
yo                   viví            nosotros                    vivimos
tú                    viviste
él/ella/usted    vivió          ellos/ellas/ustedes    vivieron

There is also a set of irregular verbs, all of which use the same endings no matter whether they are AR, ER, or IR verbs.

Irregular verbs (for example: poder)

yo                   pude           nosotros                    pudimos
tú                    pudiste
él/ella/usted    pudo           ellos/ellas/ustedes    pudieron

The preterite is often used when there is a time phrase indicating when an action happened or how long it lasted.

Here are a few examples of sentences using the preterite in Spanish:

Verbs with Special Meaning in the Preterite

Since the preterite tense is used to describe completed actions, some verbs which normally don’t describe an action change their meaning when used in the preterite. These changes in meaning can be seen in the following figure:

Figure 5.1

b) Translating the Spanish Imperfect Tense to English

The imperfect tense has two possible patterns in Spanish and is very regular.

AR verbs (for example: llamar)

yo                  llamaba            nosotros                  llamábamos
tú                   llamabas
él/ella/usted   llamaba           ellos/ellas/ustedes   llamaban

ER/ IR verbs (for example: vivir)

yo                  vivía            nosotros                   vivíamos
tú                   vivías
él/ella/usted   vivía            ellos/ellas/ustedes   vivían

The only irregular verbs in the imperfect tense are "ser" (era) and "ir" (iba), as well as "ver" (veía) which is considered irregular for maintaining the “e”.

The imperfect tense has many more uses in Spanish than the preterite. It is to describe:

Figure 5.2

c) Explanation of uses of the imperfect tense in Spanish

Since the imperfect tense in Spanish should not always be translated to the past simple tense in English, it can be important to examine the different uses of the imperfect and how each would be translated to English. Following are some more examples which reflect the usages shown in Figure 5.2.

1. To describe the background of a scene

As this use is employed more for narrative purposes, it might not be used often in DCS correspondence.

Example 5.1

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2. To describe past events that occurred at an unspecified time

To describe an event that occurred at an unspecified time in the past, English uses the past simple tense and often modifies this with “used to”. When “used to” is employed, all verbs it applies to are written in the present tense.

Example 5.2

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OR

3. To describe past events in progress that were interrupted by another action

When the imperfect is used to describe an event in progress in the past that was interrupted by another action (which would be expressed in the preterite), the imperfect must be translated to the past continuous form in English (was talking)  while the preterite is translated to the past simple (talked).

Example 5.3

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As you can observe in these examples, a past event in progress may be described in Spanish by either the imperfect tense or the past progressive tense (which is formed with the imperfect form of estar and the past participle - estaba esperando). In either case, the verb would be translated into the past continuous form in English.

4. In phrases of time which express something which began at one point in the past and ended at another, or the first time something occurred

This usage often occurs in ‘time expressions with hacer’. Just as in the present tense these phrases require the present perfect in English, in the past, they are translated to the past perfect (had talked) in English.

Example 5.4

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