Paragraph with preterite/imperfect

Question

Here is a paragraph [totally fictional, by the way :D].

La semana pasada, yo estuve muy ocupada. Yo visité mi abuela en Denmark y viajé a Paris. Mi familia y yo corrimos en un maraton. ¡Qué divertido! Mi prima se casó un hombre muy simpático, y toda la familia celebró. ¡Felicidades, prima! Mi madre y yo fuimos de compras y compramos muchas cosas. Ahora, yo estoy muy cansada, pero yo tengo muchos recuerdos que se quedarán conmigo para siempre.

Since I established this all happened "la semana pasada", all my sentences from the past would be in the preterite, correct?

You need the personal "a" before "mi abuela". - Tosh, Jun 7, 2011

Thank you - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 7, 2011

Answer 1

La semana pasada [OUT] estuve muy ocupada. [OUT] Visité a mi abuela en Dinamarca y viajé a París. Mi familia y yo corrimos en un maratón. ¡Qué divertido! Mi prima se casó con un hombre muy simpático, y toda la familia lo celebró. ¡Felicidades, prima! Mi madre y yo fuimos de compras y compramos muchas cosas. Ahora [ OUT] estoy muy cansada, pero [please, OUT!!!] tengo muchos recuerdos que se quedarán conmigo para siempre.

Your tenses are perfect, but the use of "yo" is not optional, no matter what you have been told. Just read this:

I, and no other one, went to the circus, and I, and no other one, saw the tigers, and then I, and no other one, had a lot of fun.

Don't tell me that the grammar is wrong, because it is perfect, but what's wrong? You are all the time comparing yourself with the rest for no reason, and it sounds unnecessary. That's how you sound when you say "yo" all the time in Spanish (maybe even better): perfect grammar, but a shockingly annoying result.

Thank you :D - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 7, 2011

Answer 2

Since I established this all happened "la semana pasada", all my sentences from the past would be in the preterite, correct?

No. Look at any story written in the past tense(s).

Answer 3

Hola, sonrisa,

It is not necessary to use "yo" all the time. People will know you are saying "I" by the ending of the verbs.

"Visité a mi abuela . . .etc.

A bad habit I'm trying to break! Thank you, NancyGrace. - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 7, 2011

Answer 4

When you write a sucession of past actions in a narrative it is common to use the preterite. We did this, then, we did that, next we did this, etc.

maratón

visité a mi abuela

Mi prima se casó a un hombre (if you know who the man was) or se casó con un hombre....

Thank you for fixing that accent, as well as pointing out the "a". I'm still a bit confused, because Sabor makes it sound like I am incorrect using the preterite. - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 7, 2011

I didn't get that from his reply. What he was saying is La semana pasada does not dictate the used of the preterite in the entire paragraph. It can still be either all preterite or a mix of preterite and imperfect. It would be correct to talk about - 0074b507, Jun 7, 2011

onging past actions within the narrative. We were doing this on Tuesday (imperfect) when this occured. (preterite). - 0074b507, Jun 7, 2011