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Preterite and Imperfect Verbs. …the tricky past is present. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. - Lesley P. Hartley, The Go-Between , 1953. Uses for Preterite and Imperfect. Other situations. Something was happening, when an action ‘interrupted’ it.
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Preterite and Imperfect Verbs …the tricky past is present The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. - Lesley P. Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953
Other situations • Something was happening, when an action ‘interrupted’ it. • The ongoing action is imperfect, and the action that ‘interrupts’ is preterite. • In a long narrative. • The part that seems to be descriptive, background info is imperfect, while actions and specific events are preterite.
Practice While I was walking in Florida, I saw a gator (el caimán). Mientras caminaba en Florida, vi a un caimán. (interruption of an ongoing action)
Practice I left Florida, and went to Belize. It was sunny when I arrived! Salí de Florida, y fui a Belize. Hacía mucho sol cuando llegué. (action, weather, action)
Practice It was four o’clock when my mom sent me an e-mail. She was sad, because she missed (echar de menos) me. Eran las cuatro cuando mi madre me mandó un e-mail. Estaba triste, porque me echaba de menos. (time, action, emotion, emotion)
Yolanda’s Scary Experience Preterite and Imperfect - As you view this video of Yolanda’s surprising experience as a hotel receptionist, write down as many preterite and imperfect verbs as you hear. After the video, we will go through them together and discuss why they were used.
More Practice W e b R e s o u r c e s Preterite and Imperfect Practice http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/exercises/superhombre.html Grammar Help Preterite vs. Imperfect http://php.indiana.edu/~jsoto/PreteritoImperfecto.html Online Verb Tutorial http://www.studyspanish.com/verbs/index.htm