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Narrate Using Imperfect and Preterite by Sandra Rosenstiel

As you know, the imperfect is primarily used to describe actions in the past without reference to beginnings or endings. In a sense, the imperfect takes you back to the past so you can experience it again. The preterite, on the other hand, is used to describe events in their completeness. If the imperfect takes us back to past events in progress, the preterite relates events that are more specifically over and done with. Don't worry if you're not completely clear on the distinction yet; it just takes practice, and there's plenty of that coming up.

Meaning Changes

Some verbs actually change meaning depending on whether you use them in the imperfect or the preterite. Well, to put it more accurately, their translated meaning changes since English uses different verbs rather than different tenses to express the two concepts. The two verbs in Spanish that seem to have the most obvious change of meaning in English are saber and conocer. You probably remember that both of these verbs in the present tense mean “to know” in English, but saber means to know factual information while conocer refers to knowing or being familiar with a place or person. When these verbs are conjugated in the past, knowing takes on different aspects in the imperfect and preterite. For example:

Sabíamos donde estabas. (We knew where you were.)

Supimos donde estabas. (We found out/learned where you were.)

Yo no conocía a Beto. (I didn't know Beto.)

Yo conocí a Beto la semana pasada. (I met Beto last week.)

These shifts of meaning may seem very strange until you remember that the imperfect describes ongoing actions or states in the past and the preterite expresses changes of state and beginnings and endings. So, sabía-mos describes the ongoing state of knowledge while supimos describes the beginning of the state of knowing, which in English is expressed with the verbs “to find out” and “to learn.” Likewise, no conocía describes the ongoing state of not being familiar with Beto, and conocí refers to the moment when your familiarity began, when you “met” in English translation.

Look at the following table to see how some other verbs shift meaning in the imperfect and preterite.

<tgroup cols="2"> <colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="center" colwidth="50%"/> <colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="center" colwidth="50%"/> <thead> <tr> <td><p>Imperfect</p></td> <td><p>Preterite</p></td> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>ir: Ibas a la fiesta, �verdad?</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>Fuiste a la fiesta, �verdad?</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>You were going to (had the intention of going to) the party, right?</p></td> <td><p>You went to the party, right?</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>querer: Quería hablar con Matilde.</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>Quise hablar con Matilde.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>I wanted (had the desire) to speak to Matilde.</p></td> <td><p>I tried to speak to Matilde (but was unable to).</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>no querer: No quería hablar con Matilde.</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>No quise hablar con Matilde.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>I didn't want to speak to Matilde.</p></td> <td><p>I refused to speak to Matilde.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>poder: Ellos (no) podían ver.</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>Ellos (no) pudieron ver.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>They were (un)able to see.</p></td> <td><p>They were (un)successful at seeing.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>costar: La blusa costaba treinta dólares.</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>La blusa costó treinta dólares.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>The blouse cost (was priced at) thirty dollars.</p></td> <td><p>The blouse cost (and someone paid) thirty dollars.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>tener que</emphasis><footnote xml:id="fnt4"><p>Other verbs of obligation like deber and necesitar follow the same pattern of meaning shifts as tener que.</p> </footnote>: Alán tenía que limpiar su cuarto.</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>Alán tuvo que limpiar su cuarto.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Alán had to (was supposed to) clean his room.</emphasis></p></td> <td><p><emphasis>Alán had to (was obliged to) clean his room.</emphasis></p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <h2>Practice: Imperfect or Preterite?</h2> <p>Complete the following narrative using the imperfect or preterite of the verbs in parentheses according to the context. When you're done, compare your responses to those in Appendix D. You'll find a translation into English there as well to help you resolve doubts.</p> <p>___________ (<emphasis>ser) sábado y Alfredo ___________ (querer) dormir tarde. Él ___________ (estar) muy cansado después de una semana de trabajo. Pero, a las ocho ___________ (sonar) el teléfono y Alfredo ___________ (desper-tarse). ___________ (ser) su amigo, Juan, quien ___________ (llamar) para invitar a Alfredo a jugar al fútbol. Alfredo no ___________ (querer) decir que no, así que ___________ (levantarse) rápidamente, ___________ (bañarse) y ___________ (vestirse). En quince minutos, cuando Juan ___________ (lle-gar) en el coche, Alberto ___________ (estar) listo. 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