The Preterito tense

Question

What is the indicative tense called Preterito? How is it translated'

Answer 1

Juanita, the best thread on tenses is this one, I believe.

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A515171]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A515171[/url]

Have a look and you will get very clear info.

Answer 2

where we are considering the whole act of eating in a restaurant as (¿not') complete (yet),

Was that meant to be incomplete or was I unable to follow the logic of your explanation.

lazarus1907 said:

.On the other hand, while you were still eating in the restaurant, you could have described the moment by saying "I am eating in a restaurant". This situation, where we are considering the whole act of eating in a restaurant as complete (yet), would be described from a present perspective using the imperfect tense ("imperfecto").

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Answer 3

It is not translated, because English tenses are different from Spanish ones, so strictly speaking, there is no match for this tense in English.

Preterite tense is used to talk about past events that, in a given past moment in time, were already complete.

For example, if you say "Yesterday I ate in a restaurant", you could easily imagine this situation from any perspective outside of the restaurant, after the meal is over, and say "I have eaten in a restaurant", i.e. the whole event is considered to be complete. To describe this from a present perspective you use the preterit tense ("pretérito").

On the other hand, while you were still eating in the restaurant, you could have described the moment by saying "I am eating in a restaurant". This situation, where we are considering the whole act of eating in a restaurant as complete (yet), would be described from a present perspective using the imperfect tense ("imperfecto").