Question about Paralee's Examples...

Question

I just watched lesson 3.10 and learned the conditional. Here are two of her examples:

Sabía que llegarían a la hora en punto. I knew they would arrive on time.

Dijo que ganaría. He said I would win.

I understand what these mean and everything, but why in example one did she use the imperfect and in example two did she the preterit? Did she use the imperfect because "sabía" will never be complete, as in she still know that they would arrive on time? And did she use the preterit because "dijo" is a complete action, as in he has said it already isn't saying it anymore? I know that "pret. vs. imperfect" has been done to death, but I just need some clarification. Muchas Gracias -Austin

Answer 1

Did she use the imperfect because "sabía" will never be complete, as in she still know that they would arrive on time?

Close. It is because when you use the present tense, you simply say "I know", without establishing the start and the end, and when you recall the same thing, you use imperfect. However, there is no reason why you can't forget it; imperfect just doesn't say whether it finishes or not.

And did she use the preterit because "dijo" is a complete action

Because it is presented as a complete action. If right now you say "He is saying something" using the present (continuous), later you can recall it with "Decía algo" (or "Estaba diciendo algo"), using imperfect, but that doesn't mean that he never stopped talking again in his entire life.

OH that makes sense now. Thanks :) - Austin67427, Aug 13, 2011

Answer 2

I think you're almost right, Austin. I think she used "Sabía " because she "knew" for an unspecified amount of time (that they would arive on time), whereas she used "Dijo" because "he said" it only once and that's a clearly distinct event.

-Mateo

Answer 3

This is how I understand it...

Dijo que ganaría, he said a statement once in one particular occasion, hence preterit.

Sabía que llegarían a la hora en punto. Here I had been anticipating, that they would arrive on the specified time, for an extended period of time. So the knowing didn't happen at once, hence imperfect.

Answer 4

queremos comer bien

I think you answered the wrong question. - eltennis97, Aug 13, 2011