IMPERFECT (duration) | PERFECT (PRETERITE: completion) |
---|---|
Los indígenas no aceptaban a los europeos. The natives would not accept Europeans (for some time). |
Algunos nunca los aceptaron. Some (definitely) never did. |
El sábado nevaba y hacía frío. It was snowing on Saturday, and it was cold. (for some time) |
El sábado nevó todo el día. It snowed all day on Saturday. (time frame) |
El año pasado asistía mucho a conciertos. Last year I used to attend concerts a lot (often). |
El año pasado asistí a muchos conciertos. Last year I attended many concerts. |
B. For narration, each tense has a distinct function:
IMPERFECT (duration) | PRETERITE (completion) |
---|---|
gives background information, describes what was happening | reports completed actions, tells what happened |
It was raining... Llovía (o estaba lloviendo)... | when I woke up, cuando me desperté. |
describes a state or condition | reports a change in condition |
He was fine before the winter, ... Estaba bien antes del invierno, ... | but in January he got sick because of the cold. pero en enero se enfermó por el frío. |
C. As was mentioned in §28,
a few verbs have slightly different meanings in the preterite. All of
them, however, follow the general idea of duration for the imperfect and
of completeness for the preterite:
Imperfect | Preterite | |
poder | could, had the ability to | managed to (or failed to if negative) |
querer | wanted, had the intention to | tried to (or refused if negative) |
conocer | previously knew for some time | met, got to know for the first time |
saber | had knowledge for some time | learned, found out at a specific point |
See §22 to review the difference between conocer and saber
Los conocía antes de viajar. I knew them before traveling. |
Los conocí al viajar. I met them while traveling |
¿Qué sabía Bush del ataque? What did Bush know of the attack? |
¿Cuándo supo Bush del ataque? When did Bush find out about the attack? |
No sabía que eras chilena. I did not know you were Chilean. |
Ayer supe que eras de Chile. Yesterday I learned you were from Chile. |
De niño podía jugar todo el día. As a child, I could play all day. |
También pude hacer muchos amigos. I also had the opportunity to make many friends. |
Como no podíamos salir, ... Since we couldn’t go out, ... |
no pudimos ver los fuegos artificiales. we were unable to see the fireworks. |
Queríamos ir de compras, ... We wanted to go shopping, ... |
pero mi madre no quiso darnos dinero. but my mother refused to give us some money. |
The original website of this content + some exercises here.
No comments:
Post a Comment