Spanish - More Imperfect and Preterite Tense

Spanish - More Past Tense with the Preterite and the Imperfect

Review: The Preterite Tense

• AR endings: é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron

• ER/IR endings: í, iste, ió, imos, isteis, ieron

• Many irregulars, including ser, ir, hacer and many others.

• The preterite tense is used for what happened once, what happened a specific number of times, or to describe someting at a specific moment in time.

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Review: The Imperfect Tense

• AR endings: aba, abas, aba, ábamos, abais, aban

• ER/IR endings: ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían

• Only 3 irregulars: ir, ser and ver

• The imperfect is used to say what used to happen and what happened over and over again.

• It is also used to describe what things were generally like in the past.

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Using the Imperfect and the Preterite Together

• The imperfect tense and the preterite tense can be used in the same sentence.

• To do this, the imperfect tense can describe what was happening when an action in the preterite tense interrupted that activity.

• For example: I was eating (imperfect) when Johnny arrived (preterite). = Yo comía cuando Johnny llegó.

• The sentence can also be flipped around using the word "while," which is mientras in Spanish.

• Johnny arrived while I was eating. = Johnny llegó mientras yo comía.

Multiple Choice

Complete the translation of the sentence with the correct preterite or impefect form of the missing verb.

I was dancing when you called me.

Yo ... cuando tú me llamaste por teléfono.

• bailaba

• bailé

Multiple Choice

Complete the translation of the sentence with the correct preterite or impefect form of the missing verb.

We were shaking hands when they started the music.

Nosotros nos dábamos la mano cuando ellos ... la música.

• empezaban

• empezaron

Multiple Choice

Complete the translation of the sentence with the correct preterite or impefect form of the missing verb.

Loenzo left while the kids were crying.

Lorenzo ... mientras los niños lloraban

• salía

• salió

Multiple Choice

Complete the translation of the sentence with the correct preterite or impefect form of the missing verb.

María took a picture with her phone while Julia and Víctor were kissing.

María sacó una foto con su celular mientras Julia y Víctor ...

• se besaban

• se besaron