Imperfect vs. Preterit

Jennifer Bishop Februrary 20, 2008 Pgs. 134-140: Imperfect and Preterit Tenses There are 3 verbs that are irregular in the Imperfect Tense: Ver: veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían Ir: iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban Ser: era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran Verbs that end in ?-IR? in the Preterit Tense change from e-i and from o-u Pedir: pedí, pediste, pidió, pedimos, pedisteis, pidieron irregular roots in the Preterit tense note: these verbs don?t have accents in the yo or él/ella/Ud. forms Andar Anduv Caber Cup Estar Estuv Haber Hub Poder Pud Poner Pus Saber Sup Tener Tuv Hacer Hic ***él form: hizo Querer Quis Venir Vin Decir Dij Traer Traj Producer Produj Traducer Traduj Conducer Conduj Ir Fu Ser Fu Uses of the Imperfect Tense: To express continuity or repetition To refer to a custom in the past To express an action that was in progress (was ?ing-ing?) To express a condition that existed in a certain moment To describe a scene or a situation in the past To express two thing that were happening at once Used instead of present to express politeness Uses of the Preterit Tense: To express an action that happened at a specific time To express a series of actions that already happened To express a completed/finished action To say when some thing began or ended you can use Imperfect and Preterit in the same sentence Ex: cuando llegamos, el leía un articulo. a verb that expresses communication is usually in the Preterit tense Dijo que tenía ganas de comer. Le pregunté si tenía problemas. some verbs have different meanings depending on whether they are used in the Preterit or Imperfect tenses Verb Imperfect meaning Preterit meaning Conocer Knew (a person, place) To met Estar To be somewhere To get to/arrive at Saber To know (a fact) To find out Querer To want To try Poder To be able to To manage to (with effort) to use hace?.que and desde hace in the past, you have to use Imperfect Hacía siglos que las cosas se hacían así. to change sentences with acaber de to past tense, use imperfect acababa de terminar la tarea.