When you're telling a story in Spanish, it's really important to know when to use two special types of past verbs: the preterite and the imperfect. These help make your story easy to understand.

Preterite Tense

• What it means: This tense is used for actions that are complete or finished.
• Examples:
  • Ayer comí pizza. (Yesterday, I ate pizza.)
  • El año pasado viajé a España. (Last year, I traveled to Spain.)

Imperfect Tense

• What it means: This tense talks about actions that were ongoing or provides background details.
• Examples:
  • Cuando era niño, jugaba al fútbol. (When I was a child, I played soccer.)
  • Era un día soleado. (It was a sunny day.)

When to Use Each:

• Use the preterite tense for specific events that happened once.
• Use the imperfect tense for descriptions, ongoing habits, and background information.

To make your storytelling even better, try to mix both tenses. This way, you can share what happened and also express feelings or regular actions. It makes your story more interesting and lively!