Can the imperfect and preterite be in the same sentence?
I found this in a children's book: >El pájarito salió y después gritaba.< Why would you use the imperfect for gritar and not the preterite as was used in salir?
3 Answers
Of course!
My dad was cooking dinner when the door rang
Mi papá cocinaba la cena cuando sonó la puerta.
sonó - the door rang and stopped
cocinaba - dad was cooking and we don't know when he stopped
Yes they can be in the same sentence.
In this case it's because the singing/screaming is a longer-term action. "The little bird went out and then sang." The 'going out' happens once, whereas the singing continues.
The other case where this is common is when one action interrupts another in the past, ie. "Yo estaba durmiendo cuando mis amigos lluegaron."
the preterite is something that just happened once and is over. whereas the imperfect is something that happened for an undetermined amount of time. for example. we were skiing when i fell. Esquíamos cuando me caí. Esquíamos is in the imperfect because it was going on, but when i fell it was an isolated incident...it happened and it ended. The verb that is preterite is usually the main action in a sentence where the imperfect usually gives background information.
