ESPAÑOL DOS

1. ESPAÑOL DOS APUNTES DEL IMPERFECTO #1

2. IMPERFECTO • The imperfect tense is another past tense, distinct & NOT interchangeable with the preterit.

3. ¿Cómo se forma el imperfecto? • There are only two types of imperfect endings! There are endings for –AR verbs; meanwhile –ER & -IR verbs share endings!

4. --AR -aba -ábamos -abas -abais -aba -aban

5. --ER / --IR -ía -íamos -ías -íais -ía -ían

6. ¡OJO!   The “yo” & “él, ella, Ud.” forms are identical.

7. ¡OJO! ♫ ♫ There are NO stem-changes in the imperfect tense.

8. ☼ There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect! IR (to go) SER (to be) VER (to see) ¡OJO! ☼

9. IR (to go) iba íbamos ibas ibais iba iban

10. SER (to be) era éramos eras erais era eran

11. VER (to see) veía veíamos veías veíais veía veían

12. HABER

13. The imperfect tense of “hay” (there is, there are) is “había” (there was, there were). Notice this verb is both singular & plural. The preterit form is “hubo” (there was, there were in the sense of “there occurred”).

14. Cuando yo era niña, no había iPods por todas partes.

15. When I was a little girl, there were no iPods. But now, there are iPods everywhere.

16. En 1970, no había I-475. No existía todavía.

17. In 1970, there wasn’t I-475. It didn’t exist yet.

18. There are several distinct uses of the imperfect. ALL involve a contrast with the preterit. PRETÉRITO IMPERFECTO

19. Distinction #1 • Preterit for single, memorable actions or events (or a repeated a distinct number of times) • Imperfect for repeated, habitual actions or events (# of repetitions not important!) • In such cases, the imperfect is sometimes translated as “used to” or “would + verb”

20. ♥La semana pasada, no recibí una detención por llegar tarde a la clase.

21. ♥Last week, I didn’t get a detention for arriving late to class.

22. ♦En 1978, Enrique tuvo su primer cita.

23. ♦ In 1978, Eric had his first date.

24. ♣ El mes pasado, Alicia y yo llegamos tarde a la práctica dos veces.

25. ♣ Last month, Alicia & I arrived late to practice twice/two times.

26. ♠ En 1900, mucha gente vivía en el campo y no tenía coches. Viajaba por caballo.

27. ♠ In 1900, many people lived in the country & didn’t have cars. They traveled by horse.

28. ● Cuando mi papá era joven, asistía a una escuela muy pequeña. Tenía quince estudiantes.

29. ● When my dad was younger, he attended a very small school. It had 15 students.

30. ▲Hace muchos años, no se podía mirar películas en casa. Tenía que ir al cine. No había videos ni DVDs.

31. ▲Many years ago, one could not watch movies at home. One had to go to the cinema. There weren’t videos nor DVDs.

32. TRIGGER WORDS… ☻Certain words and phrases indicate an indefinite number of repetitions and therefore provide a cue for the use of the imperfect.

33. a menudo siempre a veces often always sometimes

34. todos los días every day frecuentamente frequently muchas veces many times

35. cada lunes every Monday generalmente generally varias veces several times

36. TRIGGER WORDS… ☺In contrast, certain other words and phrases indicate single, distinct actions and therefore point toward the preterit.

37. por la primera vez for the first time una vez, dos veces, etc. once, twice, etc. la última vez the last time