Hola, en esta lección, vamos a hablar del pretérito y el imperfecto
In this video, we'll attempt to address the difficulties presented
in the preterite and imperfect and help with common confusion between the two.
Before watching, you might review the different videos on the preterite and imperfect
so you can recognize which is which.
First, here are some sentences that have either the preterite or the imperfect.
See if you can figure out which is which and some reasons why we might use one instead of another.
Feel free to pause the video and consult the word bank while you’re figuring out what is being talked about.
Había un muchacho.
El muchacho era inteligente y tímido.
Tenía pelo castaño y ojos azules.
Se llamaba Nicolás.
Nicolás tenía 9 años.
A Nicolás no le gustaba la escuela.
No le gustaba porque la maestra era muy estricta en la clase.
Un día Nicolás tenía mucha sed y bebió mucha agua de la fuente.
Luego, tenía que usar el baño.
Le pidió permiso a la maestra estricta para ir al baño.
La maestra le dijo que no.
El niño insistió porque era una emergencia.
La maestra le gritó que no.
Nicolás se asustó e hizo al baño en sus pantalones.
Todos los niños se rieron de Nicolás.
Nicolás se puso triste.
Ok.
Let’s take a look.
Hopefully you could understand or figure out most of what it said.
Había un muchacho.
There was a boy.
El muchacho era inteligente y tímido.
He was intelligente and shy.
Tenía pelo castaño y ojos azules.
He had brown hair and blue eyes.
Se llamaba Nicolás.
His name was Nicolás.
(Literally, He called himself Nicolás.)
Nicolás tenía 9 años.
Nicolás was 9 years old.
(Literally, he had 9 years)
A Nicolás no le gustaba la escuela.
Nicolás didn’t like school.
Literally, school was not pleasing to Nicolás…
"le" means ‘to him"
No le gustaba porque la maestra era muy estricta en la clase.
He didn’t like it, or it wasn’t pleasing to him because the teacher was very strict in class.
Did you notice preterite or imperfect in the first paragraph?
It’s all imperfect!
Interesting.
Why is that.
Well notice that we’re telling background information to the story.
Can you remember background information in a story is imperfect?
Un día Nicolás tenía mucha sed y bebió mucha agua de la fuente.
One day, Nicolás was really thirsty.
Literally, "He had a lot of thirst..."
and he drank a lot of water from the water fountain.
Luego, tenía que usar el baño.
Later, he had to use the bathroom.
Le pidió permiso a la maestra estricta para ir al baño.
He asked permission from the strict teacher to go to the bathroom
La maestra le dijo que no.
His teacher said “no”
El niño insistió porque era una emergencia.
The boy insisted because it was an emergency.
La maestra le gritó que no.
The teacher yelled “no” at him.
Nicolás se asustó e hizo al baño en sus pantalones.
Nicolás got scared and he went to the bathroom in his pants.
Todos los niños se rieron de Nicolás.
All of the children laughed at Nicolás
Nicolás se puso triste.
Nicolás got sad.
Did you notice in the second paragraph if we used preterite or imperfect?
Well we used mostly preterite.
We used a few imperfect.
Let’s figure out why that is.
For things that happened once, or twice and are over with, like he drank, he asked,
she said, he insisted, he peed his pants, they laughed,
we use the preterite.
Notice in a few cases I used the imperfect.
Nicolás tenía sed.
In this case, I am describing something that doesn’t necessarily have a beginning or an end.
He was thirsty.
So imperfect.
Tenía que usar el baño.
He had to use the bathroom.
But his having to didn’t go away. He continued to have to go to the bathroom.
So it’s not narrating an action as much as adding descriptions.
Thus, Imperfect.
Let’s try another one.
This time, I’ll give you the two choices and for the verb and see how you do.
Pause the video if you need more time and check the word bank if you aren’t sure what something means.
Ok. Now let’s go over it to see how you did.
Había una muchacha.
There was a girl.
First description in our story explaining what is going on for the story to happen.
La muchacha se llamaba Gloria.
She called herself Gloria.
Another description. She didn’t just call herself Gloria once or twice.
This is a continuous thing. Thus imperfect.
Gloria tenía un problema.
Gloria had a problem.
In this case, we’re going to explain to you the problem so she continues to have it. Thus imperfect.
Estaba atrapada en un ascensor.
Gloria was trapped in an elevator.
She was trapped and trapped and trapped during the story. Description... imperfect.
Estaba muy nerviosa.
She was very nervous.
She continued to be nervous while she was in the elevator.
Padecía de claustrofobia.
She suffered from claustrophobia, fear of enclosed spaces.
And her suffering was a description of her as a person. Thus continuous. Imperfect.
So once again, we can see that all the information in the first paragraph was explaining to us
what was going on for the action in the story to happen, thus imperfect.
Pero Gloria se acordó que tenía su teléfono celular.
Gloria remembered that she had her cellphone.
Her having the cellphone continues in the story, thus imperfect while her remembering
happened quickly and was over with.
Sacó su teléfono.
She took out her phone.
Done. Preterite.
Marcó 9-1-1 en el teléfono.
She dialed 911 in the phone.
Her dialing happened... finished. Preterite.
Habló con una persona amable y le dijo que estaba atrapada en un ascensor.
In the first part of the sentence… she talked with a nice person and the person said…
Both are actions that happened and are done with. Preterite.
But when she told them she was trapped, she was explaining her being trapped
as a continuous description of herself. Thus, imperfect.
La persona le dijo que los bomberos iban a llegar a ayudarla.
The person told her that the firefighters were going to arrive to help her.
The person told… happened… now something interesting… when we say ‘was going to’
or ‘were going to’ as a future type action in Spanish, we use the Imperfect.
So they were going to arrive… iban a llegar.
Because they didn't just arrive. They were continuously going to arrive.
Los bomberos llegaron y rescataron a Gloria.
The firefighters arrived and rescued Gloria.
Straight, simple, to the point. Preterite.
Se sintió aliviada.
She felt relieved.
Preterite because she felt relieved and it was over with.
That’s it. Preterite.
If we were saying ‘se sentía aliviada’, there would be more things to describe as well
and she would continue being relieved in the rest of our story.
As a recap… when we’re describing actions that happened and are over with,
we use the preterite.
When we’re describing a larger part of the story or things that were continuously going on,
we’ll use the imperfect.
Please keep in mind this is a simplified explanation.
That’s all I have for this lesson.
Make sure to watch the next lesson where I break things down a little more into the rules
for those of you who like rules.
Hope this video was helpful.
Please leave any questions, comments, or suggestions about this video below.
Gracias y adiós.