Mastering Preterite and Imperfect Verbs in Spanish Grammar

1. 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

2. Uses for Preterite and Imperfect

3. 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.

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. Imperfect Formation

8. Preterite Formation

9. 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.

10. 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