The Acronym Used to Remember When to Use the Imperfect Tense Is WHATSLEFT. It Stands For

Me llamo ______

The acronym used to remember when to use the Imperfect Tense is WHATSLEFT. It stands for:

WEATHER It was cloudy. It was raining. It was bad weather.

HABITS We ALWAYS went to Dairy Queen after baseball games. She NEVER studied for Spanish quizzes. I got good grades often.

AGE My dog was 3 when (we bought her.) (when I got my first bicycle), I was 7 years old.

TELLING TIME It was 7:00 (when they arrived.) It was late (when the train left the station.)

SETTING There were many trees in the park. The streets were decorated for Holy Week

LOCATION We were in México (when we received the call.) (when you called) I wasn’t home.

EMOTIONS I was sad (because she told me a lie.) She was mad (when she saw her grade.) They were in love!

FEELINGS We were tired (because we had walked for miles!) I was hungry! They were jealous (because I was so beautiful!)

THOUGTS (Verbs related to thoughts) I knew you were right! (*remember what supe meant in preterit?) She believed (what her son said.)

Para el miércoles, escribe frases que sirven como ejemplos para 5 de estas “reglas.”

 Debes:

-escribir cada frase como una frase de “Checkpoint B” con dos verbos

-al menos (at least) UNA de las frases debe contener 2 verbos en el imperfecto

-al menos UNA de las frases debe contener un verbo en el imperfecto y un verbo en el pretéríto para ilustrar como funcionan en la misma frase

Cada frase debe mostrar que comprendes una de “las reglas” del imperfecto

Algunos sitios útiles para repasar:

http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/preterite_vs_imperfect_b

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/64

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/PRETIMP.HTM

¡Buena suerte! ¡Espero que yo vaya a leer algunas frases creativas!

Regla:

______

Me llamo ______Preterit and Imperfect

You will remember that in Spanish there are 2 past tenses, the Preterit and the Imperfect.

1) The endings on the Imperfect Tense are fairly easy to remember:

viajar viajaba viajábamos viajabas viajaba viajaban

correr salir corría corríamos salía salíamos corrías salías corría corrían salía salían

2) The Imperfect Tense is ALWAYS used if you want to say:

-someone “was or were –ing” or -someone “used to” ejemplos: Ella leía. She was reading. Shhhh! ¡Yo dormía! Shhhh! I was sleeping! Yo estudiaba italiano pero ahora, no. I used to study Italian (but now, I don’t)

3) Preterit and Imperfect may be used in the same sentence. In those sentences, the Imperfect is used to set the stage for other actions. It is typically used to describe time, age, weather, feelings and thoughts since this is background information.

Era muy tarde cuando ellos llegaron.

Tú nos llamaste cuando estábamos muy tristes.

Cuando tenía 7 años, fui a Puerto Rico por primera vez.

4) ***The Imperfect of hay is había (there was, there were)

5) There are ONLY 3 IRREGULAR VERBS IN THE IMPERFECT 

ir ser ver iba íbamos era éramos veía veíamos ibas eras veías iba iban era eran veía veían

6) The Preterit and the Imperfect Tenses are very often used in the same sentences in the past. The Imperfect provides the background while the Preterit is like a snapshot of an event or a series of events.

ejemplo: While I was studying, my sister entered the room. Mientras estudiaba, mi hermana entró.

Last night I was tired. I made dinner, ate and went to bed. Anoche, yo tenía sueño. Hice la cena, comí y me acosté.

7) In order to remember the uses of the Imperfect, it is helpful to remember the acronym: “ WHATSLEFT”

T: 8) Some words and phrases indicate specific times and are most often used with the Preterit:

ayer – yesterday hace dos días – two days ago

anoche – last night hace un año – one year ago

esta mañana – this morning

la semana pasada – last week

el año pasado – last year

el anteayer – the day before yesterday

9) These expressions indicate more vague or repetitive actions and are usually associated with the Imperfect:

a menudo – often

cada día – every day

todos los días – every day

muchas veces – many times

siempre – always

nunca – never

normalmente, suele + verb – usually

los veranos, los domingos, los jueves…summers, Sundays, Thursdays… 10) There are verbs which have special meanings when used in the Preterit and Imperfect: preterit: imperfect: a. saber: yo supe – I found out. yo sabía – I knew (facts) b. conocer: yo conocí – I met yo conocía – I knew (people or places)

c. querer: ella no quiso ir - ella no quería ir - she refused to go she didn’t want to go d. poder: yo pude – I could and did yo podía – I was able no pude – yo no podía - I tried and couldn’t I wasn’t able