Learn the difference between the Spanish preterit perfect and the imperfect tense
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: What is the difference between |
| Cesar: pretérito imperfecto and pretérito perfecto |
| Michael: in Spanish? |
| Cesar: And how do you know which one to use? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Gustavo Gonzalez Brito and Mark Lee talk about the food they like. Gustavo says, |
| "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Gustavo Gonzalez Brito: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Dialogue |
| Gustavo Gonzalez Brito: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Mark Lee: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Gustavo Gonzalez Brito: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Michael: "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Mark Lee: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| Michael: "I ate pizza yesterday." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this conversation, we hear Gustavo say, |
| Cesar: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Michael: which in English is, "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." Note that the verbs meaning "was" and "used to" |
| Cesar: era and solía |
| Michael: are conjugated in the imperfect tense, in Spanish, this is known as |
| Cesar: pretérito imperfecto |
| Michael: In response, we hear Mark say, |
| Cesar: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| Michael: "I ate pizza yesterday." Here the verb "ate" |
| Cesar: comí |
| Michael: is conjugated in the preterit tense, in Spanish known as |
| Cesar: pretérito perfecto simple |
| Michael: As you may know based on your Spanish language studies, we use the word |
| Cesar: pretérito |
| Michael: to describe forms of the past tense. Just like in English, there are many forms of the past tense. |
| Cesar: tiempo pasado |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will focus on two important preterit tenses that might cause confusion for some learners. |
| Cesar: pretérito perfecto simple and pretérito imperfecto |
| Michael: Let's talk first about the |
| Cesar: pretérito perfecto simple |
| Michael: preterit tense |
| Michael: We use this tense to talk about things that happened once in the past. Note that these are actions completed in the past, like, "The phone rang." |
| Cesar: El teléfono sonó. |
| Michael: As you might already be familiar with, in Spanish, basically the verbs are conjugated depending on the ending of the verb in the infinitive form, |
| Cesar: -ar, -er, -ir |
| Michael: To conjugate verbs in the preterite tense, there are two sets of endings -ar verbs ending, as in |
| Cesar: Yo hablé |
| Michael: "I talked" |
| Cesar: Ella habló |
| Michael: "She talked" |
| Michael: On the other hand, we have the endings for -er and -ir verbs which are the same for both cases. As in |
| Cesar: Yo comí |
| Michael: "I ate" and |
| Cesar: Ella comió |
| Michael: "She ate." You will find a chart with all the conjugation forms in the Lesson Notes PDF for this lesson. Keep in mind that the first person singular and the third person singular forms need a written accent mark on the final vowel. |
| Michael: We have talked so far about the conjugation of regular verbs, but. just like in other tenses, there are irregular verbs that need to be learned by heart. For example, the verb "to be" |
| Cesar: ser |
| Michael: to say "I was" you would say |
| Cesar: Yo fui. |
| Michael: "She was" |
| Cesar: Ella fue. |
| Michael: There are quite a few irregular verbs, so be sure to keep an eye on those. |
| Michael: Now, let's move on to the imperfect tense |
| Cesar: pretérito imperfecto |
| Michael: We use this tense to talk about things that happened in the past routinely, or across a long duration. We also use it to talk about what someone was doing when something else happened. For example, "I used to play piano when I was young." |
| Cesar: Yo solía tocar el piano cuando era joven. |
| Michael: Another example, "I was sleeping when my brother arrived." |
| Cesar: Yo dormía cuando llegó mi hermano. |
| Michael: To conjugate verbs in the imperfect tense, there are two sets of endings -ar verbs ending, as in |
| Cesar: Yo hablaba |
| Michael: "I used to talk" or "I was talking" |
| Cesar: Ella hablabla |
| Michael: "She used to talk" or "She was talking" |
| Michael: and, on the other hand, we have the ending for -er and -ir verbs which are the same for both cases. As in |
| Cesar: Yo comía |
| Michael: "I used to eat" or "I was eating" |
| Cesar: Ella comía |
| Michael: "She used to eat" or "She was eating" In this case, the written accent mark is needed in some of the conjugation forms, depending on the ending of the verb in the infinitive. So make sure to check the chart in the lesson notes to find out where to p ut the accent mark. |
| Michael: Also, remember that the irregular verbs have to be learned by heart with practice. For example, the verb "to go" |
| Cesar: ir |
| Michael: to say "I used to go" or "I was going" |
| Cesar: Yo iba. |
| Michael: "She used to go" or "She was going" is |
| Cesar: Ella iba. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the dialogue from this lesson. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Cesar focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Gustavo Gonzalez Brito says "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Cuando era joven, solía comer pizza todos los días. |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark Lee says "I ate pizza yesterday." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Yo comí pizza ayer. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: So remember to use the |
| Cesar: pretérito perfecto simple |
| Michael: preterit tense to talk about things that happened, and finished, once in the past. And use the |
| Cesar: pretérito imperfecto |
| Michael: Imperfect tense, to talk about things that happened in the past routinely, or across a long duration. And, use it to talk about what someone was doing when something else happened. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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