¶ Introduction to Spanish Past Tenses
Episode twelve A Window to the Past The Preterate and the Imperfect Raylen. I'll start today's episode by reading you something. Let me know if it sounds familiar to you. I'm all ears. Soy todo oído. Muchos años después, Frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar. Aquella tarde remota en que su Padre lo llevó a conocer el hiel. Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas. Familiar. It's one of my favorite books.
Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez. clásico de la literatura latinoamericana. Y una buena manera de explicar nuestro tema de hoy. Today, we look to the past to see how the preterite and imperfect tenses work together, but also to admire the work of some of the greatest literary minds that Latin America gave us in the 20th century. pagó otros cinco reales y exclamó, Este es el gran invento de nuestro tiempo. End of chapter one. Gabriel García Márquez fue un genio, verdaderamente.
Era uno de los mejores novelistas de su época. En 1982, 1982, ganó el premio Nobel de Literatura. You just use the imperfect. Era uno de los mejores novelistas de su época. And the preterite. ganó el premio Nobel de Literatura. Both in the same sentence. the same thing happened in the first lines of Cien Años de Soledad. Did you notice? It happens so seamlessly in Spanish. Let's break that sentence down. Su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo. His father took him to see the ice.
The preterite of the Llevar... Llevo. Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas. Makondo was then a village of twenty houses. The imperfect of E aí
¶ Distinguishing Preterite and Imperfect
Spanish expresses the past in two different ways, depending on the nature of the action. or condition being described. The preterite tells us specifically when an action took place. If we use the preterite, we know that the action has a clear beginning and end. I read the book. In this statement the action is definite, but if I use the imperfect and say leía el libro That's like saying I was reading the book. In that statement, the action is not definite. Rather, it's open-ended.
The imperfect tense tells us in general when an action took place. It tells time and age. It's used when expressing the characteristics or temporary states of people, places, or things. Another way to think of preterite versus imperfect is precise moments in time versus vague periods of time. Here are some precise moments in time expressed with the preterite. Gabriel García Márquez fue uno de los autores del boom latinoamericano. El boom surgió en la década de mil novecientos, nineteen sixty.
El fenómeno incluyó al peruano Mario Vargas Llosa y al argentino Julio Cortázar. Estos autores jóvenes tuvieron éxito a nivel mundial. Let's use the imperfect to talk about characteristics and temporary states. Esos autores del boom eran relativamente jóvenes, y sus obras eran vanguardistas. García Márquez escribía cuentos inspirados en las historias y supersticiones de su abuela. Muchas obras criticaban el ambiente político de la época.
In some cases, it might seem like either tense could work, but there is usually a slight difference in meaning. Let's go a little deeper and learn some common expressions that trigger either the preterite or the imperfect and see how these verb tenses are used together.
¶ Applying Preterite and Imperfect Correctly
When an action, state, or condition is considered completely finished from the point of view of the person who's speaking, we use the preterite. Ceci, antes dijiste, García Márquez ganó el premio Nobel en 1982. Un premio específico como el Nobel es un buen ejemplo del pretérito, porque sucede en un momento específico. En el año 2010, otro novelista latinoamericano, Mario Vargas Llosa, también ganó este premio. Very good point.
The opposite of a single event, such as an award, would be a habitual or repeating action. García Márquez también trabajaba como periodista y viajaba frecuentemente. This concludes the free portion of our program. For the complete audio of today's program, please go to news in slowspanish.com.