Preterit or imperfect

Question

I was looking through the things I have printed out on the preterit and the imperfect, and one of the things I found was this:

Iba a clases todos los jueves – I went to clases every Thursday

That makes sense to me, because it's a recurring event. What I'm confused about is in the second example:

—¿Qué hiciste el semestre pasado?— el dijó

—Fui a clase todos los jueves—respondió.

Why is the preterit used in the second example, even though it's still a recurring event? Or is that a mistake?

Muchas gracias.

Sorry if there is already a post about this

Answer 1

I think in general the Imperfect is used the describe events which did not have a definite end or are still occurring. The closest English equivalent is "I used to".

The Preterit however is used to describe events which had definite end. The closest English equivalent is "I did".

So if you were to say "I had a cold last week" you would use the Imperfect, because there was no exact point where your cold ended. But if you were to say "I left work at 5pm" you would use the Preterite, because it ended at an exact point.

"Qué hiciste el semestre pasado" is Imperfect because it describes a vague past - an entire semester. "Fui a clase todos los jueves" is Preterite because it describes an exact past - Thursday.

"Qué hiciste el semestre pasado" is Imperfect ...." this is the preterite NSP, I would say because 'last semester' although quite a length is not really vauge but instead is an exact time period, completed in the past. - Kiwi-Girl, Sep 10, 2012

Thanks. - Notedstrangeperson, Sep 10, 2012

Answer 2

—¿Qué hiciste el semestre pasado?— el dijó

—Fui a clase todos los jueves—respondió.

The word "el semestre" in the past indicates that this action has had its beginning and is now finished, so pretérito is the correct tense.

It doesn´t matter if the past action is recurring or not because it happened within a time frame that is absolutely finished.

Okay, that's what I was confused about. Thank you for the clarification. But without "el semestre", implied or otherwise, it would be "iba", right? - Maxwell_R, Sep 10, 2012

snap JC, nicely done :) @ Maxwell, if the question is in the preterite it's more likely that your answer will be in the preterite too as the questioner is obviously asking about a completed action in the past - Kiwi-Girl, Sep 10, 2012

Answer 3

To me 'Iba a clases todos los jueves' means 'I was going to classes every Thursday' or 'I used to go ....' which yes could be translated as 'I went' but because you follow it by 'todos los jueves' you definitely get the feeling of ongoing action and it's as if you're transporting your hearer back to the time when this was going on. The imperfect is the tense for this job,

For your second example, to me, the question is the key:

¿Qué hiciste el semestre pasado? The question compacts the past being spoken of into a box 'last semester' a completed time period neatly boxed up. That's why 'hiciste' (the preterite) is used.

Hence the answer is also in the preterite, the action of attending the classes neatly boxed up to fit into the 'last semester' time period, not to go with the 'every thursday' so much, this is just extra info.

I'm still learning too so do wait for a native speaker's 'take' but I hope that my comments may help a little (smiley)

upsie, I obviously got distracted and forgot to hit the 'post' button, in the meantime I see JC has answered you well :) - Kiwi-Girl, Sep 10, 2012