G A M E - Preterite vs Imperfect
Objective: practice in the use of the past tenses, preterite & imperfect
The rules:-----------------------------
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translate the English sentence given by the person above into Spanish using the correct preterite or imperfect verb conjugations
make sure you click on N E W E S T before you begin
Then
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state whether you used the preterite or the imperfect and give a short explanation as to why you used it
- and finally
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provide a new sentence in English which includes a verb used in the past
for the next person to translate.
Have fun! ¡Diviértanse!
A suggestion: please keep your sentences simple. This is tricky stuff, so let's concentrate on the tenses, ok? - Gekko.
PS: here's a great link showing how the preterite is for action in the past whereas the imperfect is an ongoing condition in the past: Imperfecto vs Preterito and another that I've put together that may be of some use too, Pret vs Imp.
A big thanks to Gekko who 'was' kindly correcting this thread - Gekko if you have a mo' please post a thread below introducing yourself or post empty thread for me to introduce you, thus allowing the grateful participants to vote for all your hard and much appreciated work here 
Edit - Sadly Gekko doesn't come round much anymore :( we'd love it if he did but in the meantime any corrections or suggestions are gratefully accepted and if someone would like to volunteer to help with moderation of this game, that'd be awesome, please just let us know so we can welcome you officially to the possie (as us antipodeans say (ie. position))
388 Answers
Given:
The funeral took place soon afterwards and her son gave a moving speech.
Translated:
El funeral tuvo lugar poco tiempo después y su hijo dio un discurso conmovedor.
Reason:
took place and gave are both completed actions in the past, hence the preterite
New Sentence:
We wanted to get to know the new neighbours but they refused to speak to us.
Given: Last September my family went on vacation to Disney World (I wonder if we saw Tosh).
Translated: El septiembre pasado, mi familia se tomó unas vacaciones a Disney World. (Me pregunto si viéramos Tosh?)
Reason: "Took" is a one time event and directly relates to "Sepember," which is a specific point on a timeframe. P.S.- Good sentence! It was a nice mix of the past and the subjunctive 
New: It was late at night, and the air was cold.
Given: My mother took me to the beach every week but we never saw a shark.
Translation: Mi madre me tomaba llevaba a la playa cada semana pero nunca vimos un tiburón.
Reason: I used the imperfect for "tomar" "llevar" to express an action in the past that was recurring. "Ver", was more dificult... I finally settled on preterite because (and I'm probably wildly off-base here) if we had seen a shark, it would have been a one-off event.
New Sentence: Last September my family went on vacation to Disney World (I wonder if we saw Tosh).
Given Sentence: It was 5 o clock in the morning when the phone rang.
Translation: Eran las 5 de la madrugada cuando el teléfono sonó.
Reason: It was 5 before and after the moment of the phone ringing.
New Sentence: My mother took me to the beach every week but we never saw a shark.
Given: All my life I've hated feeling cold and because of this it was hard to learn how to swim.
Translation: Toda mi vida había odio de hacer frío y porque de esto estuvo difícil aprender como nadar.
Corrected version courtesy of gringojrf: Toda mi vida había odiado sentir frio y porque de esto estuvo difícil aprender como nadar.
Final edit (thanks, Gekko!): Toda mi vida he odiado el frío, y por eso se me hizo difícil aprender a nadar. 
Reason: "All my life I've hated..."--- imperfect "haber" because it isn't an over and done event, it was and it is ongoing. "it was hard to learn..." preterite "estar" because it once was (hard to learn), but only until I bit the bullet and did it, then it was over.
PS: I know that I've made a dog's dinner out of this sentence... it's a bit beyond my level, I think.
New Sentence: A long time ago people believed the Earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe.
New Sentence: How did I ever manage to grow up as well as I did.
Translation: Ok; intendo otra vez: Me pregunto a veces cómo es posible que me he convertido en el hombre tan bueno que soy.
¿Cómo fue posible para mí a hacerme hombre tan bien educado? / Cómo me volvía tan amable, no entiendo.
Reasoning:. Sorry the latest effort avodids the actual imperfect versus preterite problem entirely but I'm hopeful it conveys the meaning?
Moderatly hopeful. This is an expression and I have actually no idea what the equivalent Spanish may be, if there is one.
New: All my life I've hated feeling cold and because of this it was hard to learn how to swim.
Given: I saw the puppy was going to fall so I stood under the window hoping to catch him.
Altered Given for simplicity purposes: I saw that the puppy started to fall, so I stood under the window and hoped that I would catch him.
Translated: Vi que el perrito empezó a caer, y por eso me puse de pie debajo de la ventana y esperaba que lo cogería.
Reason: I changed this up just a little bit for simplicity purposes and so we can directly see how verb tenses change in a "simpler" format. I used the preterit for empezó and for vi because "I saw" is a one time event and "was going (started)" marks the beginning of an action. I used "puse" because it was a one time event, and i used esperaba because it expresses emotions, and we don't know how long i was hoping for.
New: I changed the channel after realizing that I wasn't watching the football game.
Given: All the businesses turned me down so I decided to commit suicide, there and then.
Translated: Todos los negocios me rechazaron, y por eso decidí suicidarme a este momento.
Reason: The "turning down" by the compainies happened at one time (each). Me deciding to do something is based on at that moment which specifies a specific point on a timeline, therefore calling for the preterit.
New: Even though I saw the murder take place, I decided to stay not involved because of the high threat of gang activity.
Given: Last week I went to Sarah's house to carry on our tradition since we always used to eat lunch together on Sundays.
Translation: La semana pesada fui a la casa de Sarah para continuar nuestra tradición porque solíamos siempre comer juntas los domingos.
Reason: Preterite "ir" because I'm talking about a specific occurrence (last week), imperfect "comer" "soler" because I'm talking about something we used to do habitually over an unspecified amount of time.
Also, I wasn't sure how "since" would translate, so I changed it to "because"--- I think it works okay, but suggestions are always welcome!
New sentence: I used to only eat cereal for breakfast but yesterday I ate scrambled eggs.
Given: I left because I wanted to study at a university in Europe.
Sentence: Salía porque quería estudiar en una universidad en Europa.
Reasoning: Salía(imperfect) because it is in the indefinite past and quería (imperfect) because the preterite means "to try".
New: Will you be coming to dinner on Sunday?
Given: When I left Mexico I was very sad and I continue to be so.
Translation: Cuando salí de México estaba muy triste y ahora todavía estoy así.
Reasoning: Leaving Mexico is a one-time occurenceso salir in the preterite. Being sad is an emotion so estar is in the imperfect.
New: I left because I wanted to study at a university in Europe.
New: Will you be coming to dinner on Sunday?
Translation: Estarás veniendo a cena el domingo?
Well...this is not really past tense...at all! Jaja. Pero era bien practica para mi!
New: Your cousin's answer was close, but yours was even closer!
Given: Before today I always thought I was smart.
Translation: Antes que hoy, siempre había pensado que era inteligente.
Reason: "always" implies a non specific timeframe to when you had these thoughts, and i "was" smart implies that you were smart for an unspecified amount of time.
New: I always was nervous when i played basketball; i had never learned how to dribble the ball.
Given: We thought that we were lost.
Translation: Pensabamos que estábamos perdidos.
Reason: Both call for the imperfect because, in general, this is all backround information. We don't know for how long we had these feelings of being lost.
New: We thought that he would eventually come, but in reality his car broke down and he called a repairman to have a look at it.
Given Sentence:
He then realized that the man wasn't sick, the woman wasn't crazy, but instead it was he that was insane.
Translated:
En este momento le dio cuenta de que el hombre no estaba enfermo, la mujer no era loca, en cambio fue él que era demente.
New Sentence:
Thankfully he knew that they had good meds for that kind of thing.
