Preterit and Imperfect

What is past tense?

• Actions/states of being that will happen in the future

• Actions/states of being that are happening right now

• Actions/states of being that have already been completed

• A grammatical structure used to ask questions

How many basic past tenses do we have in English without going too far into linguistics?

• Two

• Three

• One

• Four

What is the preterite tense normally used for?

• Actions that are ongoing

• Actions/states of being without a specific quantity of time

• Actions that are completed

• Actions that never happened

What is the imperfect tense used to discuss?

• Actions that are completed

• Actions/states of being that took place without a specific quantity of time

• Future actions

• Actions that are ongoing and have a specific end time

What do actions in the preterite typically indicate?

• Actions that are ongoing

• Actions that happen a specific number of times or for a specific amount of time

• Actions that are habitual

• Actions that are expected to happen in the future

What characteristic do actions in the preterite usually have?

• They have an indefinite time frame

• They have a distinct beginning and/or ending

• They are general descriptions

• They are unrelated to specific events

Which question can actions in the preterite answer?

• What will happen?

• What is happening?

• What happened?

• Why did it happen?

¿Qué características tiene una acción que se describe usando el pretérito?

• Es una acción continua sin un final definido.

• Es una acción que no tiene un principio claro.

• Es una acción distinta con un principio y un final.

• Es una acción que no responde a la pregunta "¿qué pasó?"

¿Qué pregunta responde una acción descrita en pretérito?

• ¿Qué está pasando?

• ¿Qué pasó?

• ¿Qué pasará?

• ¿Qué podría pasar?

¿Qué características tiene una acción que se describe usando el pretérito?

• Es una acción que continúa ocurriendo.

• Es una acción que no tiene un final claro.

• Es una acción distinta con un principio y un final.

• Es una acción que describe un estado habitual.