LOS VERBOS EN EL PASADO (ESPAÑOL 4)

PARTE 1: EL PRETÉRITO VS. EL IMPERFECTO

In Spanish, we use both the preterite and imperfect tenses to describe actions that took place in the past. The question is, how do we choose which tense to use?

USES OF THE PRETERITE: (TAKING A POLEROID PICTURE):

The preterite tense is used to indicate a completed action in the past.

IN PARTICULAR, WE USE THE PRETERITE FOR:

  1. Completed actions stated as a simple fact.
  2. A list of events in the past without much detail (not setting the stage for a story, just listing the facts).
  3. Actions which occurred at a specific moment in time/isolated actions.

Rosa escribió un texto a su novio. Rosa wrote a text to her boyfriend.

This is preterite because Rosa has completed the specific action (writing a text).

Este fin de semana, vi a mis amigos el viernes. El sábado hice mucha tarea, y el domingo, ayudé a mi mamá con la cena.  Last weekend I saw my friends on Friday. On Saturday I did a lot of homework, and on Sunday I helped my mom cook dinner.

This is preterite because it shows completed actions as simple facts/list of past events without much detail.

Ana llegó tarde a la escuela.Ana arrived late to school.

This is preterite because it is an action that happened in a specific moment in time/isolated action.

USES OF THE IMPERFECT: (SETTING THE STAGE/DESCRIPTIONS. THE CAMERA IS RECORDING…)

The imperfect tense is used to indicate habitual actions in the past (“I always used to…”), an action that happened in the past but still is true or happening now, or an action that has no beginning or end time. It is also used to “set the stage” or “describe the situation” when you are telling a story.

IN PARTICULAR, WE USE THE IMPERFECT FOR:

  1. To express what “used to” happen, or happened repeatedly in the past. Words like “nunca,” “siempre,” are used to show habits in the past (imperfect).

Siempre hacía mi tarea cuando era pequeño.  I always did my homework when I was little.

This is imperfect because it describes something that used to happen repeatedly in the past

Cuando era niño, yo iba a la casa de mis abuelos cada verano. When I was a kid, I used to go to my grandparents’ house every summer.

This is imperfect because it describes something that I “used to” do every summer. It also has no beginning or end time.

  1. To describe characteristics of persons or things in the past (descriptions).

Tom era rubio y tenía los ojos azules. Tom was blonde and had blue eyes.

  1. To describe a state of mind, feeling, emotion, physical condition or attitude in the past (specifically for past actions that do not have a beginning/end time and/or might still reach into the present moment).

María siempre quería ser doctor. María always wanted to be a doctor

This is imperfect because it describes a state of mind in the past that might still be true today. using the verb “querer.”

Ana estaba enferma ayer.  Ana was sick yesterday. (physical condition that might still be true)

Mi papáestaba muy enojado anoche My dad was really mad last night. (emotion that might still be true)

  1. To express time in the past .

Eran las cinco cuando Paco llegó a su casa. It was five o’clock when Paco arrived home. (time)

  1. To express a person’s age when an event took place.

Cuando Elena tenía 5 años, fue a Disneyland.When Elena was 5 years old, she went to Disneyland.

This is imperfect because it expresses the time of day in the past. ** notice that “she went” (fue) is preterit because it happened once/was an isolated event.

  1. Setting the stage/scenery for a story (DESCRIPTION)

Era un día muy bonita y los pájaros estaban cantando en el parque. Estaba andando por la calle cuando…  It was a pretty day and the birds were singing in the park. I was walking down the street when…

This is imperfect because it is setting the stage/scenery for my story. I am not just listing simple facts but instead giving details about an event.

  1. To replace the past progressive (i.e. what was happening - was/were + “-ing”).

Los pájaros cantaban  The birds were singing.

This is imperfect because it describes what was happening, using was/were + an “-ing” word (“singing”).

USING THE PRETERITE AND IMPERFECT TOGETHER

Sometimes, as seen in the last example above, the preterite and imperfect can be used together. This most often happens when something WAS HAPPENING when another action interrupts it.

Mónica estaba estudiando cuando su novio le llamó por teléfono.

Monica wasstudying when her boyfriendcalled her on the phone.

EXCEPTIONS TO IMPERFECT RULES:

-WEATHER

-EMOTIONS, PHYSICAL CONDITIONS, STATE OF MIND, ATTITUDES

If you are ONLY stating a fact (no details, such as reading the weather report in the paper) OR if you think of the situation as A COMPLETED ACTION (FINISHED, no new discussion about it), you may use the PRETÉRITO.

ESTAR (pretérito)ESTAR (imperfecto)

yo estuveestabaExamples of PRETÉRITO

tú estuvisteestabasJuan: ¿Por qué no fuiste al baile?

él,ella, usted estuvoestaba (Why didn’t you go to the dance?)

nosotros estuvimos estábamos María: Porque estuve cansada.

ellos/ustedes estuvieronestaban(Because I was tired.)

WEATHER (pretérito)(imperfecto)

hizo calorhacía calorNewspaper: Ayer, hizo 65 grados.

hizo fríohacía frío (Yesterday it reached 65 degrees.)

ANOTHER WAY TO REMEMBER:

¡A PRACTICAR!

¿El pretérito o el imperfecto? – ¡Escógelo, escríbelo, y deféndelo!

Translate each sentence below. Then, indicate the tense you used and state the rule you used to decide whether the verb(s) should be in the preterite or imperfect tense.

Modelo: It was 9 o’clockRegla: time

Eran las nueve.

1.) She wenthome.Regla:

2.) Marisa arrived at three o’clock. Regla:

3.) We used to play soccer a lot. Regla:

4.) He was 25 years old. Regla:

5.) I saw an accident this morning. Regla:

6.) We didn’t go to the beach yesterday. Regla:

7.) We went to the beach every summer. Regla:

8.) They were studying when Carlos called. Reglas:

MÁS PRÁCTICA: ¿Pretérito o imperfecto?

Choose whether each of the following statements would require using the preterit or imperfect tense in Spanish by circling “P” for preterit and “I” for imperfect:

1.)______I ran five miles yesterday.

2.) ______It was four o’clock.

3.) ______He was reading the newspaper.

4.) ______She studied for two hours last night.

5.) ______We wentto Canada every year in the summer.

6.) ______I used to ride my bike all day long.

7.) ______Wow! Wasshe angry! (she still might be angry)

8.) ______You arrived at the hotel in the afternoon.

9.) ______The cat jumped out of the window.

10.) ______He was wearing a black leather jacket.

11.) ______We lost the match.

12.) ______We were so sad. (we might still be sad)

13.) ______They vacationed in Hawaii last year.

14.) ______They always used to vacation in Florida.

15.) ______They never arrived last night.

16.) ______Did you have to work last Saturday?

17.) ______The dog ran after the mailman.

PARTE 2: EL IMPERFECTO

El imperfecto de los verbos que terminan en “-ar”

Verb Endings: hablar – to talk

Yo -aba (Yo) hablaba

Tú -abas (Tú) hablabas

Él/Ella/Ud. -aba (Él/Ella) hablaba

Nosotros -ábamos (Nosotros) hablábamos

Ellos/Ellas/ Uds. -aban (Ellos/Ellas) hablaban

El imperfecto de los verbos que terminan en “-er” e “-ir”

Verb Endings: tener – to havevivir – to live

Yo -ía tenía vivía

Tú -ías tenías vivías

Él/Ella/Ud. -ía tenía vivía

Nosotros -íamos teníamos vivíamos

Ellos/Ellas/ -ían tenían vivían

El imperfecto de ser, ir, y ver:

SER – to be IR– to go VER – to see

Yo era iba veía

Tú eras ibas veías

Él/Ella/Ud. era iba veía

Nosotros éramos íbamos veíamos

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. eran iban veían

¡A PRACTICAR!

Fill in the chart below with the imperfect endings for REGULAR verbs.

-ar / -er / -ir
yo

él, ella, usted
nosotros
ustedes/ellos

Write all the imperfect tense forms of the verbs below.

hablar comer escribir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

llevar tenerdecidir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

cantar querer vivir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

serirver

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

PARTE 3: EL PRETÉRITO

Here are all the preterite forms or regular –ar, -er, and –ir verbs:

comprar = to buy (-ar endings: é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron)

(Yo) compré

(Tú) compraste

(Él/Ella/Ud.) compró

(Nosotros) compramos

(Ellos/Ellas/Uds.) compraron

comer = to eat (-er endings: í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron)

(Yo) comí

(Tú) comiste

(Él/Ella/Ud.) comió

Nosotros) comimos

(Ellos/Ellas/Uds.) comieron

vivir = to live (-ir endings: í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron)

(Yo) viví

(Tú) viviste

(Él/Ella/Ud.) vivió (Ellos/Ellas/Uds.) vivieron

(Nosotros) vivimos

(Ellos/Ellas/Uds.) vivieron

–arand –erverbs that have a stem change in the present tense do nothave a stem change in the preterite.

encontrar – to find (ie):Encuentrodinero en la calle.

Ayer, encontré dinero en la calle.

volver – to return (ue):Siempre vuelvo a casa a las cinco de la tarde.

Ayer, volví a las seis de la tarde.

In the preterite, verbs whose infinitive ends in –garor –carhave a spelling change in the yo form. All of their other preterite forms are regular.

pagar  yo pagué

llegar  yo llegué

jugar  yo jugué

sacar  yo saqué

buscar  yo busqué

tocar  yo toqué

¡A PRACTICAR!

Fill in the chart below with the preterite endings for REGULAR verbs.

-ar / -er / -ir
yo

él, ella, usted
nosotros
ustedes/ellos

Write all the preterite tense forms of the verbs below.

hablar comer escribir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

llevar perder decidir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

cantar correr vivir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

trabajarvendersalir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

LOS VERBOS IRREGULARES EN EL PRETÉRITO

Of course, there are always some exceptions to the rule. In the preterite, there are some verbs that undergo a stem-change and also have some irregularities in their endings. Some of these verbs are:

estar, hacer, poder, poner, querer, tener, venir, decir

Fortunately, these verbs do share some similarities so they will not be that difficult to create and use in your everyday Spanish.

All of these verbs have a unique stem change in the preterite tense:

estar estuv poner  pus venir  vin

hacer hic querer  quis decir  dij

poder pud tener  tuv andar  anduv

This stem-change applies to all persons in the preterite tense. These verbs have a set of endings different from “regular” verbs:

Yo -e EJEMPLO:Estuve en clase.

Tú -iste EJEMPLO:Tuve un accidente en el carro.

Él/Ella/Ud. -o

Nosotros -imos

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. -ieron

Finally, three last verbs you should know in the preterite tense are:

IR SERDAR

Yo fui fui di

Tú fuiste fuiste diste

Él/Ella Ud. fue fue dio

Nosotros fuimos fuimos dimos

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. fueron fueron dieron

¡Practicamos los verbos irregulares en el pretérito!

  1. Give the preterite stem for each of the following verbs:

Tener  ______Hacer  ______Poder ______

Poner  ______Querer  ______Estar  ______

Venir ______Decir ______Andar ______

  1. Give the preterite endings that go with the above verbs.

Yo ______Nosotros ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella/Ud. ______Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

  1. Write all six preterite tense forms of the following verbs:

estar hacer poner

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

tener poder venir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______

andar querer decir

Yo ______

Tú ______

Él/Ella Ud. ______

Nosotros ______

Ellos/Ellas/Uds. ______