Preterit or Imperfect in this is sentence

Question

To change the following sentence to past tense, would the preterit or imperfect verb form be used?

"Sale temprano de la escuela y se acuesta cuando llega a casa."

Welcome to the forum, :) - 00494d19, Feb 27, 2011

Answer 1

Salío temprano de la escuela y se acostó cuando llegó a casa

I would say that you would use the preterit since it seems that you are speaking of an action that happened only once and has already been completed. If you were speaking of an action that was happening or used to happen you would use the imperfect

I have given you a direct link to the grammar section: Preterite tense where you can read up about the use of the preterite and when you should use that tense and when it would be more appropriate to use the imperfect.

link text

[1]: http://the imperfect

I hope that helps

Answer 2

Salió temprano de la escuela y se acostó cuando llegó a casa??? - yadda-yadda

yadda, this is what Feliz said....don't try to be smart

In any case, this is correct, usarenzo has used imperfect and is correct too. FEliz said that too

hehe, oops busted! Thank you! - yadda-yadda, Feb 27, 2011

Answer 3

Both, but the Imperfect sounds more appropriate. Salía temprano de la escuela y se acostaba cuando llegaba a casa.

Answer 4

HI vadda, please give us your attempt, we will gladly correct it for you

Salío temprano de la escuela y se acostó cuando llegó a casa??? :) - yadda-yadda, Feb 27, 2011