Preterit and Imperfect

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Preterit and Imperfect
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• Both the preterit and the imperfect are past
  tenses. Theyre actually different ways of
  looking at the past.
• Lets say youre looking at a single moment in
  the pastfor example, 1200 yesterday. Mealtime.
  I can look at the moment and the action of
  eating in two ways
• I ate at 1200 yesterday.
• What I actually mean when I say that sentence is
  that I started eating at 1200.
• I was eating at 1200 yesterday.
• What that means is that I began at some
  unspecified point before 1200 and ended at some
  unspecified point after 1200. All you know is
  that at that moment in time, I was in the process
  of eating.

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• The preterit is used when you want to show the
  beginning or end of an action
• Comí a las doce ayer.
• I ate at 1200 yesterday.
• The imperfect is used when you want to show an
  action in progress
• Comía a las doce ayer.
• I was eating at 1200 yesterday.

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• One of these sentences would make you sadder than
  the other. Which?
• Mi abuelo se moría.
• Mi abuelo se murió.
• Youd rather hear mi abuelo se moría because
  that means my grandfather was dying. It
  doesnt necessarily mean he died. Maybe he did,
  but maybe he recovered. Mi abuelo se murió
  means my grandfather died.

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• Which of the following sentences is going to make
  the teacher mad?
• Los estudiantes se reían cuando la profesora
  entró en la clase.
• Los estudiantes se rieron cuando la profesora
  entró en la clase.
• Dont just click and scroll for the answer.
  Think about it.
• The first sentence says, The students were
  laughing when the teacher entered the class.
  Apparently, someone had told a funny story. The
  laughing was already going on (in progress) when
  the teacher entered (beginning/ending of action).
• The second sentence says, The students laughed
  when the teacher entered the class. Apparently,
  she was wearing something really strange that
  made them laugh when they saw her. You see the
  beginning of the laughter AND the
  beginning/ending of the teachers entrance.

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• The following sentence has one verb in the
  preterit and one in the imperfect. One of the
  verbs shows the beginning of an action
  (preterit), and the other shows an action in
  progress (imperfect)
• He was reading when the phone rang.
• Leía cuando el teléfono sonó.
• Imagine that you step up to a window to spy on
  someone. What you see is someone sitting on his
  bed reading. You dont know when the reading
  started you just know that it was in progress
  when you started watching. The window pane was
  thin, and you heard the phone ring. You saw
  (heard) the beginning of that action.

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• Click here to go to a practice exercise.

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• There are some verbs that have a special meaning
  in the preterit
• conocer saber tener querer
• Think about it what is it if you began to know
  someone? What is it if you began to know a piece
  of information?
• preterit imperfect
• conocer met knew
• saber found out knew
• tener got had
• querer tried wanted
• no querer refused didnt want

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• Lo supe ayer. I found it out yesterday.
• Ya lo sabía. I already knew it.
• Lo conocí ayer. I met him yesterday.
• Lo conocía cuando era niño. I knew him when he
  was a child.
• Tuve la carta ayer. I got the letter yesterday.
• Ya tenía la carta. I already had the letter.
• Quise leerlo. I tried to read it.
• Quería leerlo. I wanted to read it.
• No quise leerlo. I refused to read it.
• No quería leerlo. I didnt want to read it.

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• The imperfect has another use, besides showing an
  action in progress. Its used to show habitual
  past action.
• Cuando era niño, jugaba al fútbol.
• What that sentence means is that when I was a
  child, I customarily played soccer. I dont mean
  just once. It was something I did regularly as a
  child. You can translate the sentence three
  ways
• When I was a child, I played soccer.
• When I was a child, I used to play soccer.
• When I was a child, I would play soccer.

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• All the verbs in the following paragraph are in
  the imperfect because all are habitual past
  actions
• En 1955 todos los niños asistían a la escuela.
  Iban a la iglesia todas las semanas. Llevaban
  buena ropa. Jugaban con sus amigos, y viajaban a
  la playa con sus padres en el verano.
• In 1955 all the children attended school. They
  went to church with every week. They wore good
  clothes. They would play with their friends and
  would travel to the beach with their parents in
  the summer.
• However, the minute you put a time limit to a
  past action, it ceases to be habitual, and you
  use the preterit
• In 1955 all the children attended school one day.
• En 1955 todos los niños asistieron un día.
• When I was a child, I played soccer ten times.
• Cuando era nino, jugué al fútbol diez veces.
• When you put a time limit on it, youre showing
  the end of the action, and that means you need
  the preterit.

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• Click here to go to a your homework.