Spanish 3 (h): Unit 1 - preterite and imperfect tense
-California Standard AP prep-
Imperfect tense - The imperfect tense is used to show an action reoccurring in the past an unspecified number of times (think tenses like “sometimes”, “always”, “occasionally”, “I used to”, etc. in English).
-AR verb ending conjugation (imperfect):
Yo → -aba Tú → -abas
Él/ella → -aba Nos → -ábamos
Ellos/ellas → aban
*The yo and él/ella endings are the same
*Accent the first vowel before the “b”
Irregular verbs to be careful for:
Ir (yo iba, tú ibas, él/ella iba, nosotros íbamos, + ellos/ellas iban)
-ER/IR verb ending conjunction (imperfect):
Yo → -ía Tú → -ías
Él/ella → -ía Nos → -íamos
Ellos/ellas → -ían
*The yo and él/ella endings are the same
Irregular verbs to be careful for:
Ser (yo era, tú eras, él/ella era, nosotros éramos, + ellos/ellas eran)
Ver (yo veía, tú veías, él/ella veía, nosotros veíamos, + ellos/ellas veían)
*accent the “e” in the nosotros form of ser
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Preterite - The form used to show pasted tense in Spanish that occurred a single/non-repetitive time (think “last Monday”, “last weekend”, “last year,” etc. that happened once in English)
-AR verb ending conjugation (preterite):
Yo → -É Tú → -aste
Él/ella → -ó Nos → -amos
Ellos/ellas → -aron
*same ending as the present tense
Irregular rules:
Endings with “car” turn into “qué” in the yo form (Chocar → yo choqué, tú chocaste, él/ella chocó, nosotros chocamos, + ellos/ellas chocaron).
Endings with “gar” turn into “gué” in the yo form (Llegar → yo llegué, tú llegaste, él/ella llegó, nosotros llegamos, + ellos/ellas chocaron)
-ER/-IR verb ending conjugation (preterite):
Yo → -í Tú → -iste
Él/ella → -ió Nos → -imos
Ellos/ellas → -eiron
*same ending as the present tense
*accent goes on the “o” not the “i”
irregular verbs to be careful for:
Tener (Yo tuve, tú tuviste, él/ella tuvo, nosotros tuvimos, + ellos/ellas tuvieron)
Leer (Yo leí, tú leíste, él/ella leyó, nosotros leímos, + ellos/ellas leyeron)
Pedir (Yo pedí, tú pediste, él/ella pidió, nosotros pedimos, + ellos/ellas pidieron)
Dormir (Yo dormí, tú dormiste, él/ella durmió, nosotros dormimos, + ellos/ellas durmieron)
*the nosotros form in these is not the same as the present tense
*both the singular third person and plural have the same stem changes (easier to remember)
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Unit 1’s Vocabulary:
(Time frames)
El año pasado → last year
La semana pasado → last week
Ayer → yesterday
Antier → the day before yesterday
El mes pasado → last month
El verano pasado → last summer
Cuando era niño/niña → when I was a kid
El lunes pasado → last Monday
En la primavera → in the spring
En la mañana → en the morning
Hace dos horas → two hours ago
Hace 15 minutos → 15 minutes ago
(Frequencies)
Siempre → always
Mucho → a lot
Nunca → never
Regularmente → regularly
Con frecuencia → frequently (with frequency)
Todo el tiempo → all the time
(Textbook vocab, these are really random)
El bosque → woods/forest
El paisaje → landscape
La roca → Rock
El valle → valley
La naturaleza → Nature
El granizo → hail
El relámpago → lightning
El desierto → desert
La medalla → Medal/award (think Olympics bronze, silver, etc.)
La meta → Goal