HISP 2000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Spanish Verbs, Preterite, English Verbs
6 Feb 2017
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The preterite [shows end or completion] contrasted with the imperfect. 60-2: english has one simple past tense, whereas spanish has two, the preterite, and the imperfect. In spanish, it is always necessary to distinguish verbal aspect, that dimension of the verb that signals perfective (completed) or imperfective (not completed) action. In english verbal aspect is usually ignored, though sometimes imperfective aspect is conveyed through a progressive form: He was writing (was, were + ing) = l escrib a (or l estaba escribiendo) The spanish imperfect tense is equivalent to the following english forms: Used to / *would : she used to / would work on sundays = ella trabajaba los domingos. *do not confuse would, as used to describe a repeated action in the past, with the conditional would, as in: i would like to work on sundays (me gustar a trabajar los domingos).
