Spanish Story – Imperfect v Preterite Tenses
Practice in a short story about a puppy
Video Clip + Online Quiz about a puppy growing up.
The ‘story’ is in the imperfect tense, with statements in the preterite tense to say what happened during the time that the puppy was growing up.
Grammar:
1. The Preterite Tense is used for precise things that happened and ended.
2. The Imperfect Tense is used:
– to describe things in the past
– to talk about things that happened during a period of time
– to say what was happening or what things were like when something more precise happened (preterite tense)
E.g:
La niña estaba jugando cuando llegó su padre.
The girl was playing when her father arrived
Verbs in the Story
IR – to go
Iba – he/she was going (imperfect)
Fue – he/she went (preterite)
LLEGAR – to arrive
llegaba – he arrived (imperfect)
llegó – he arrived (preterite)
CONOCER – to meet, get to know
Conocía – I knew (imperfect)
Conocí – I knew (preterite)
TENER – to have (+to be)
Tenía – he/she had/was (imperfect)
Tuvo – he/she had/was (preterite)
SER – to be
Era – he/she was (imperfect)
Fue – he/she was (preterite)
SACAR – to take (a photo), to take out
Sacaba – I took (imperfect)
Saqué – I took (preterite)
QUERER – to want
Quería – he/she wanted (imperfect)
Quiso – he/she wanted (preterite)
CRECER – to grow
Crecía – he/she grew (imperfect)
Creció – he/she grew (preterite)
Video
Video Transcript
Saqué esta foto de Maggie el día de su llegada.
Tenía siete semanas.
¡Sus patas eran grandes!
Iba a crecer mucho.
Era tímida.
Tenía miedo del jardín.
Quería muchos abrazos.
¡Le gustaba jugar en la ropa sucia!
¡Era encantadora!
¡Creció muy rápido!
En esta foto tenía solo ocho días!
Su madre tuvo ocho cachorros.
Maggie fue la más pequeña de todos.
Su padre era muy guapo.
Fuimos a verla por primera vez cuando tenía cuatro semanas.
¡Qué linda era!
– – – –
Read the story above and translate it into English.
Look at these two sentences in the preterite tense:
‘Su madre tuvo ocho cachorros. Maggie fue la más pequeña de todos’.
The use of ‘fue’ is because Maggie was the smallest at that particular (finished) event: When they were born!
Online Quiz
This quiz is also available on its own separate page:
Online Quiz
#1. (I took) ___ esta foto cuando Maggie (was) ___ siete semanas.
#2. (She was) ___ muy pequeña cuando (she arrived) ___ a casa.
#3. She was going to grow a lot.
#4. (She was) ____ tímida.
#5. (She was) ___ miedo del jardín.
#6. (She wanted) ___ muchos abrazos.
#7. Su madre (had) ___ ocho cachorros.
#8. Su padre (was) ___ muy guapo.
#9. She grew up very fast.
#10. (I met) ___ Maggie por primera vez cuando (she was) ___ cuatro semanas.
Results
¡Muy bien!
Have another go after working with this resource:
For more practice using the imperfect tense in Spanish, this time in a short story set in 1930s Spain, go to:
Imperfect Tense in Spanish Story Practice