El pretérito e imperfecto

EL PRETERITO “El pretérito” is one of the past tenses in Spanish. It is often expressed by the “-ed” form in English but not always. “El pretérito” is an action that has a clear beginning and end to it. It is often a one time action.

Ejemplos I talked to my mom yesterday. Hablé con mi madre ayer. I ate my food. Comí mi comida. Profe taught us the lesson. Profe nos enseñó la lección.

EL IMPERFECTO “El imperfecto” is another past tense in Spanish. It is expressed in many ways. - was/were + -ing - “Would” - “Used to” And sometimes the “-ed” form.

EL IMPERFECTO The beginning and end of an imperfect action is unclear. It is imperfect. An imperfect action is - a habitual action. - an action that was repeated more than once. - an action that was in process. - an ongoing action.

EJEMPLOS I used to talk to my granny a lot. Yo hablaba con mi abuela mucho. (repeated action) I was (in the process of) eating, when… Yo comía, cuando…

EJEMPLOS While you were (in the process of) reading,… Mientras tú leías,… I would go to the park a lot when I was a kid. (habitual action) Siempre iba yo al parque cuando era niño.

I went to the movies a lot. (And I still do) How you can use the “pretérito o imperfecto” to convey different meanings. I went to the movies a lot. (And I still do) Muchas veces yo iba al cine. I went to the movies a lot. (And I don’t anymore) Muchas veces yo fui al cine.

Can you have the “pretérito e imperfecto” in the same sentence? I was (in the process of) sleeping when you called. Yo dormía cuando llamaste.

Vamos a practicar I did my homework last night. I always did my homework on the computer. You were studying when dad came home. I walked a lot when I lived in Lake Zurich I woke up, showered, and ate breakfast.

Más I used to throw up on roller coasters. They would always eat at Friday’s. While he was laughing, milk shot out of his nose. IRON ROSE rocked the PAC!! I saw a good movie last week. When we arrived it was 7pm.