When do I use the preterite and the imperfect?
My homework for Spanish tonight is to do a worksheet where I indicate whether a verb should be in the imperfect or the preterite. I know the basics; preterite for past actions that began and ended at a specific time in the past and imperfect for continuous or repeated action in the past. But what about such things as time, description, etc. Thanks!
4 Answers
When talking about time and age you always use the imperfect.
Example, "Cuando era niño..." (when I was a boy...)
Example, "Eran las dos cuando...(It was two o'clock when...)
Some words and phrases indicate specific time frames, and therefore, signal the use of the preterite. For example,
ayer (yesterday)
anoche (last night)
desde el primer momento (from the first moment)
durante dos siglos (for two centuries)
el otro día (the other day)
en ese momento (at that moment)
entonces (then)
esta mañana (this morning)
esta tarde (this afternoon)
la semana pasada (last week)
el mes pasado (last month)
el año pasado (last year)
hace dos días, años (two days, years ago)
HI edge, why not post your work here and we can proofread it for you
Well it isn't that I have to do work, but more where we are given sentences with the verb missing and we have to figure out if it the verb needs to be imperfect or preterite. But thanks for the offer! I will keep that in mind in the future.
