It Happened When

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It Happened When
By the time that you finish these lessons, you
will be able to tell about an action in the past
that interrupted another action.
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It Happened When
Preterite finite event(s) in the past. We
usually know how many times it happened. Imperfect
on-going action in the past. We dont know how
many times (it was just going on).
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I ran over a cat
yesterday. The supposition is that I didnt just
keep doing it. So. . . we use the Preterite.
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I spoke to my mother
yesterday. This type of sentence can be a
problem. But generally, one would assume that I
spoke to her only once. So. . .
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I spoke to my mother
yesterday. its the Preterite again.
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I played football
yesterday. Again the assumption is once. So. . .
we use the Preterite. Compare
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I used to play
football. Here it is obvious that we dont know
how many times. So. . . we use the Imperfect.
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? As a child, I watched
cartoons. How many times? Dont know. So. . .
we use the Imperfect.
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I saw her every
day. Imperfect.
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It Happened When
Preterite or Imperfect? I saw her
yesterday. Preterite.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Llamé/Llamaba a
María ayer. Llamé a María ayer.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Fui/Iba a la
tienda el sábado. Fui a la tienda el sábado.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? En California
nadé/nadaba mucho. En California nadaba mucho.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Ella me dio/daba
cinco dólares anteayer. Ella me dio cinco dólares
anteayer.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Ella me dio/daba
cinco dólares todos los días. Ella me daba cinco
dólares todos los días.
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It Happened When
Sometimes both the preterite and the imperfect
occur in the same sentence. That is, something is
going on when something else happens.
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It Happened When
I was eating soup when the door slammed
shut. Its fairly easy to see which action was
on-going and which occurred just once.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Comí/Comía mi
sopa cuando entró/entraba José. Comía mi sopa
cuando entró José.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? El teléfono
sonó/sonaba mientras (while) Paco leyó/leía el
libro. El teléfono sonó mientras Paco leía el
libro.
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Te llamó/llamaba
tu mamá mientras hablaste/hablabas con tu
novio? Te llamó tu mamá mientras hablabas con tu
novio?
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It Happened When
El Pretérito o El Imperfecto? Elena hizo/hacía
su tarea cuando Roberto llegó/llegaba. Elena
hacía su tarea cuando Roberto llegó.
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It Happened When
Desires generally exist for some duration in the
past. So, we normally use the imperfect when we
conjugate desire words in the past.
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It Happened When
Some of these desire words are amar, adorar,
querer, desear, preferir, tener ganas de
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It Happened When
Yo amaba a mi hermanito. Mi hermana adoraba a su
maestra. Yo quería una bicicleta nueva.
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It Happened When
Siempre deseábamos calificaciones buenas. De
niña, preferías la carne de res o el pollo? Tenía
ganas de ir al cine.
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It Happened When
This same theory applies to almost any mental
process. That is, we normally use the imperfect
when we conjugate mental process words in the
past.
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It Happened When
Some of these mental process words are creer,
saber, pensar, poder, opinar
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It Happened When
Yo creía que él era ignorante. Ella no sabía la
respuesta correcta. Pensábamos que íbamos a ir al
centro comercial.
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It Happened When
José podía contar hasta un millón. Yo opinaba que
íbamos a ganar.
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It Happened When
FIN