Hola a todos.
On today's Lean Tips I'm gonna teach you how to use "Pretérito Imperfecto" and "Pretérito Indefinido".
Pretérito Imperfecto is the "once upon a time" kind of past. So whenever you are telling a story or sharing an anecdote you'll be using it. Apart from that, there are three different situations in which you must use it.
Situation 1: Describe how something or someone used to look like.
Por ejemplo: "La casa en la que vivíamos era hermosa".
Situation 2: Explain how, when, where, or why something used to happen.
Por ejemplo: "Éramos felices porque vivíamos cerca de la playa".
Situation 3: Describe your habits and the thing you used to do in the past. And notice I'm saying "things you used to do", not things you just did. So you could say something like: "Cuando era chico me encantaba jugar con mis amigos".
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If you want to describe things you just did, you can use Pretérito Indefinido, actions that took place in the past and that were just facts, things you did.
So for example you could say something like:
Ayer fui al cine
La semana pasada visité a mi prima.
Notice all these sentences are just information and not a story. If you wanna learn more about how to conjugate verbs in these tenses, you can find me on italki and book a lesson with me.
Nos vemos.
What is a Featured Teacher?
For you, our dedicated learner in the new Community, we are now providing tips, learning materials and prompts from our selected teachers to help along your language learning journey.
Our first Star! - Leandro Villega
Languages: Spanish & Portuguese
With both Spanish and Portuguese as his native languages, Lean is a very experienced professional teacher, who is beloved by lots of students all over the world.
Feel inspired? It is time to take out your notebook and put these tips to use!
- Describe the things you used to do in childhood. Use Pretérito Imperfecto to tell your story.
- Describe the things you did yesterday. Use Pretérito Indefinido.
- Create a short story to practice both tenses.
You can find these prompts in our community and write something about them. Lean will help you correct and give suggestions on learning Spanish!
Tips: Search "childhood", "yesterday", "tenses" to find these 3 prompts.
