Preterite vs Indefinite? (in Spanish)

[peter_chant]

I'm totally confused. While researching preterite vs imperfect I see references to "Preterite indefinite" and "Preterite imperfect".

I'm getting the impression, in the context of the Past Tense, that "Peterite", used by itself, is synonymous with "Indefinite", used by itself. Can anyone clarify this?

[Chilotin]

In Spanish, the formal name of past tenses is "Pretérito" ("Pasado" is more colloquial). Then, Preterite is "Pretérito indefinido" ("Preterite Indefinite") and Imperfect is "Pretérito imperfecto".

[peter_chant]

Thank you. This makes sense.

I notice a lot of (English to) Spanish grammar books and websites seem to be using just "Preterite" to mean "Preterite Indefinite". Eg.: they will compare Preterite vs Imperfect. Hence all the confused discussions I have found in various forums.