El Pretérito o El Imperfecto
Which one should I use?
El Pretérito o El Imperfectoboth are used to express an
action or to describe someone or something in the past tense
El PretéritoACTIONcompleted actions action that has a definite beginning/ending timed actionaction that occurred a specific # of timesseries/chain of events
•and thenaction that interrupted an ongoing action
El ImperfectoDESCRIPTIONon-going actions
•was/were + ___ingrepeated or habitual actions in the past
•used todescriptions of weather, emotion, age, time,
appearance, characteristic or background2 simultaneous actions
El Pretérito El ImperfectoTime Expressions
ayer – yesterdayanoche – last nightun día – one day
de repente – suddenlycuando – when
el ___ pasado – last __una vez – one time
Time Expressionssiempre – always
nunca – nevercada ___ – each ___todos ___ - every ___
mientras - whilea veces – sometimes
a menudo - often
El Pretérito El ImperfectoUnique Verbsconocer - metquerer - tried
no querer - refusedsaber – found outpoder - succeededno poder – failed to
tener - received
Unique Verbsconocer - knewquerer - wanted
no querer – didn’t want
saber - knewpoder – was able
no poder – wasn’t abletener – used to have
El Pretérito El Imperfecto AR
é amosaste asteisó aron
ER/IRí imosiste isteisió ieron
ARaba ábamosabas abaisaba aban
ER/IRía íamosías íaisía ían
El Pretérito El ImperfectoIrregulars•fui, fui song•cargarzar verbs•slipper/sole/shoe•i to y
Irregulars•ser – era•ir – iba•ver – veía
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