what past tense do you use when talking about your childhood? preterit or imperfect?
I have to fill this in.... cuando yo (Fui/Era) niña, siempre (Pasé/Pasaba) ..... and I´m kinda having problems
thanks for any and all help!
6 Answers
That's kind of funny, I just went over this in my high school Spanish class.
"De niño, montaba en triciclo."
"As a boy, I used to ride tricycles"
As you can see, I used the imperfect. In Paralee's imperfect lesson, she talks about how the imperfect is appropriate when talking about something that doesn't have a definate beginning or end, but rather a range of times. In my example, you can see how it doesn't mention a specific time.
In the preterite, it is more like: "Yesterday, I ate an apple." "Ayer, comí una manzana."
Imperfect: "Everyday, I used to eat an apple." "Cada día, comía una manzana."
I hope that makes the distinction clear.
thank you!
Estoy de acuerdo con todo lo arriba. El imperfecto tiene, en parte, el significado do accion que ocurria en al pasado distante, por ejemplo, cuando Ud. era joven, nino/a, etc.
Tambien el imperfecto se traduce 'used to' por algo que pasaba regularmente en el pasado.
Espero que esto le haya ayudado 
Imperfect.
For example...
Cuando era niño/a... siempre visitaba a mi abuela.
When I was a boy/girl... I always used to visit my grandma.
Cuando tenía 6 años...jugaba con mis amigos.
When I was 6 years old... I used to play with my friends.
(but I also see people use jugué as well, so I don´t know if they are using the wrong tense or what)
The imperfect tense is commonly translated as what you used to do.
In the preterite, it is more like: "Yesterday, I ate an apple." "Ayer, como una manzana.
It should be-
Ayer comí una manzana.
To set the scene in the beginning, I would use the imperfect.Then I would use the Preterito to continue with the story. Check out video lesson 2.7
