Preterite vs Imperfect: Talking About the Past

In Portuguese, the two main past tenses used to talk about the past are the 'pretérito perfeito' (preterite) and the 'pretérito imperfeito' (imperfect), both of the indicative mood.

The preterite and the imperfect tenses suggest different time flows that are not distinguished in many languages, and they are often translated into the same tense (normally the simple past tense) in English. Let’s take a look at the differences between them.