Past tense forms

Question

I'm studying the different past tense forms of verbs but I can't seem to grasp the idea of preterite,impeferfect, so on and so forth. For the verb tener, how and when do you use it?

Please complete your SD profile - it helps us help you. - ian-hill, Oct 18, 2013

Answer 1

Others here will explain better than I can but ..........

the only way we can get something like the imperfect in English is to use "use to"

I eat - I ate - I used to eat.

como - comí - solía comer or comía.

Answer 2

I found this page excellent:

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/64

There is also a practice quiz, which you can use to test yourself. It really helped me to develop more of a sense of when you use each tense.

Answer 3

That's a huge question Awannly, but basically you use the preterite tense for one off completed actions in the past and you use the imperfect to refer to habitual actions or to describe some non-specific time in the middle of a past action as it was developing, this tense is good for setting the scene or narrating a story.

There's a lot more to it than that but I hope it gives you somewhere to start.

For practice why don't you write out a few English sentences using the past tense then have a go translating them. If you post your attempts here we can help you with any needed corrections.

Answer 4

Ditto Ian´s comments.

In your original question, you mentioned tener.

Yesterday, I had an ink pen. Ayer, tuve un bolígrafo. (signed, sealed, dellivered, Done - use preterite)

When I was young,,I always had pets. (it´s about an indefinite, ill-defined period in the past that occured over time -- use imperfect) Cuando era joven, siempre tenía mascotes.

When I lived in the city, I used to have more free time (about the past, but general, and repeated -- used imperfect) Cuando vivía en la ciudad, tenía más tiempo libre.

hope that helps r

C