Preterite vs. Imperfect/Ser vs. Estar

Question

What is the relationship between preterite and imperfect, and how are the verbs "ser" and "estar" conjugated accordingly?

Answer 1

The preterite usually expresses an action that comes and goes and is not continuous. The imperfect is similar but is much more drawn out and is mostly referred to as providing "contextual information". For example...

"La mujer cerró la puerta" = The woman closed the door. Preterite because it's an action that began and ended.

"La mujer cerraba la puerta mientras un hombre entró" = The woman was closing the door while a man entered. Imperfect at first because the door was never shut but preterite the second because he entered and the action began and ended clearly.

Ser (preterite) Estar (preterite) fui estuve fuiste estuviste fue estuvo fuimos estuvimos fueron estuvieron

Ser (imperfect) Estar (imperfect) era estaba eras estabas era estaba éramos estabamos eran estaban

Hope this answered your question!

Answer 2

Correction:

Ser (preterite) = fui/fuiste/fue/fuimos/fueron Ser (imperfecto) = era/eras/era/éramos/eran

Estar (preterite) = estuve/estuviste/estuvo/estuvimos/estuvieron Estar (imperfecto) = estaba/estabas/estaba/estábamos/estaban

Answer 3

In case you need it:

Vosotros: Ser (pred) = fuisteis, (imp) = erais Estar (pred) = estuvisteis, (imp) = estabais

Answer 4

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