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Rick
Spanish Preterite vs Imperfect's "Rule of Thumb"
Is what this guy says right? Skip to minute 3:50
Sep 21, 2015 2:08 AM
Comments · 2
@Alberto I think for a lot of verbs his rule works, but today for example, I heard tenia and tenia que many times when the English would have been the simple past tense (had & had to), so maybe for tener his rule doesn't work.
September 22, 2015
Yes Ric, He is right. In Spanish exists 2 past: Imperfect (Pretérito Imperfecto) and Preterite (Pretérito Perfecto Simple).
Imperfect is a past action that you don't know if it is finished. Preterite is a finished past action, for example:
Yo trabajé: before I was working but in this moment I am not working.
Yo trabajaba: in the past, I was working but you don't know if I am still working.
I hope it useful. (excuse my English)
September 21, 2015
Rick
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, Indonesian, Japanese
Learning Language
Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese
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