G A M E Past Tense Practice - Preterite & Imperfect
For those of you who found our last Preterite vs Imperfect game a little too advanced I thought I'd get a new one going and keep it a bit simpler.
Here's a helpful link Pret vs Imp
and some tips: (caveat emptor: bear in mind there are always exceptions and these are just basic guidelines to get you started - nothing replaces listening and reading as the best way to learn when and where to use these tenses!
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Preterite:
Specific time/duration.
Stressing the beginning/end of an action.
Narrating a sequence of completed actions/events.
Describing sudden changes in physical states or emotions.
Narrating an action that interrupts another ongoing action.
Imperfect:
Physical states (not changes).
Describing intrinsic characteristics of places, things and conditions in the past.
For ongoing actions (not completed).
Recurring and habitual actions.
Background/Setting the Scene
The weather or time in the past when other event occurred.
How to play:
Translate the given sentence into Spanish using the correct preterite or imperfect verb forms.
Post one new fairly simple sentence in English that includes at least one verb in the past.
If it runs like a story that's great fun but if not, no worries.
The thread should look like this:
GIven:
Translated:
New Sentence:
I'll start us off:
New Sentence: Who broke the cup?
114 Answers
Given: There were too many choices for me.
Translation: Había demiasadas opciones para mi.
Reason: You don't know when the action began or ended, so it should be the imperfect(if I did it right hehe).
New Sentence: I also enjoyed complex sentences for the challenge.
Given: I ate apples everyday until I was 50 and lost my teeth.
Translation: Comía manzanas todos los días hasta que perdí los dientes cuando tenía cincuenta años.
New sentence: When I got old I only ate soup and soft food.
given: Did you see John today? He was wearing a really weird outfit.
trans. ¿Viste a Juan hoy? Llevaba un traje raro.
new sent.I ate apples everyday until I was 50 and lost my teeth.**
Given sentenc:e The school summer fair was cancelled because it was raining.
Translation: La feria escolar de verano fue cancelada por lluvia.
New sentence. It was 1:00 in the morning when we picked my brother up at the airport 2 weeks ago.
Given sentence: It was 1:00 in the morning when we picked my brother up at the airport 2 weeks ago.
Translation: Era la una de la mañana, cuando nos recogí a mi hermano en el aeropuerto hace dos semanas.
New sentence: My brother went to live in Mexico, but now he is back.
Like so?
My brother went to live in Mexico, but now he's back.
Mi hermano se fue a vivir en México pero ahora volvió.
Last Wednesday there was a birthday party at work for one of the students who turned 28 years old.
Given:
I went home last night and found a spider in the bathroom.
Translated:
Fui a casa anoche y encontré una araña en el cuarto de baño.
New Sentence:
There were twenty people already at the interview when I arrived.
Given: I was studying Spanish while my parents were watching television.
Translation: Estudiaba Español mientras que mis padres veían la televisión.
New sentence: I went home last night and found a spider in the bathroom.
When I found this game, I knew it would help me remember the preterite v.s. imperfect.
Cuándo encontré este juego, sabía que me ayudaría para recordar el pretérito v.s. el imperfecto. (jejeje :D)
When my puppy came in the house, I saw that her feet were dirty.
Given My brother called this week to say that my nephew was engaged.
Translated: Mi hermano llamó (por teléfono) esta semana para decir que mi sobrino se prometido
New sentence The school summer fair was cancelled because it was raining.
deleted please see completed post below
Given: I heard the phone ring while I was talking to someone on Skype.
Translation: Oí sonar el teléfono mientras hablaba con alguien por Skype.
New sentence: I knew that I was breaking the law when I ran the stop sign, but I drive a stick shift - what would you do?
Given: While I was studying, the cats slept on the sofa
Edit: (gracias a Gekko) El gato se durmió en el sofá mientras estudiaba.
Translated: Mientras estaba estudiando, El gato durmió sobre el sofá.
New: When we was in the school, we used do mimicry of the teachers.
Given: When we were in school, we used to mimic the teachers.
Translation. Cuando estábamos en escuela, imitábamos las profesoras.
New Sentence. Yesterday we did our reports in our Spanish class in English.
Given:The factory used to make chocolate bars but then closed down
Translation: -La fábrica solía hacer chocolatín pero cerró para siempre.
I heard the phone ring while I was talking to someone on Skype.
