Does it work so? [past tenses]
Hola
I'd like to ask you a question. Do I think right? Do I get the didfference beetween those tenses? Tell me please if I get it right.
That's how it works in my native language and I'm not sure if it works so in Spaish
The Imperfect Tense
-Unfinished action
For example:
Leía un libro ayer - I was reading a book at some time, but I didn't finish the whole book, f.ex it had 100 pages and yesterday I read 40 of them
The Perfect tense
- Finished action
Leí un libro ayer - I read the whole book yesterday f.ex. it had 100 pages and I read all of them.
Do I get it right, or am I even close to being right? :D
Gracias!
2 Answers
Not exactly. In the first, because you have said ayer, you have created a definite time that starts and ends. It could however be argued that yesterday you repeatedly read the book as habitual action, but this is not likely and would simply be a strange assumption. Even though you didn´t finish the book, the action of reading was finished when yesterday finished. You have to use preterite and if you want to indicate that you didn´t finish the book, then you need to mention this, ie: Ayer leí un libro pero no acabé de leerlo. Of course if you were reading when something else happened, then you would use imperfect to create the time in which the other action took place.
Your second example is OK for an elementary grammar exercise, but to sound more natural we would say, ie: Ayer leí un libro entero. This tense is called preterite, I have never heard it called perfect.
What you have said is correct in part. However it is a little more complicated than that.
Here's an article I wrote. I believe it will help you.
