CSG067

56 Complete Spanish Grammar

The imperfect is also used to express the past:

•    to indicate a mental State, a mental action, or a State of indefinite duration with verbs such as sentir, creer, conocer, pensar, querer, and saber. Mental States are considered ongoing con-ditions.

El pensaba en mi.    He thought about me.

Nos conociamos desde que eramos    We have known each other sińce we were

little.

pequeńos.

Me gustaba caminar por las calles.    I used to like walking down the streets.

•    in the Spanish equivalent of the English -ing forms, referring to past actions. Usually they refer to simultaneous actions, and there is no mention of a specific time in the past.

Ella trabajaba y yo descansaba.    She was working and I was resting

El ladrón salia mień tras nosotras    The thief was leaving while we were going

entrabamos a la habitación.    into the room.

ejercicio

Completa las frases eon la forma apropiada de uno de los verbos. Usa el imperfecto.

comprar    estar    salir

decir    pensar    sentir

_en ti.

mentiras (lies).

_mucho dolor.

_las entradas.

espectacular. _de la tienda.

The Imperfect and the Preterit in the Same Sentenee

Often morę than one tense will be needed in a sentence: the imperfect to point out ongoing actions or background information and the preterit to express actions seen as “interrupting” the actions in the imperfect.

Llovla y de momento salió el sol.    It was raining and all of a sudden the sun

came out.

In the previous example notę the description in the past. The verb llovla appears in the imperfect. While this action is taking place, a different action is expressed in the preterit (salió). De momento (suddenly) points to the specific time that action took place. The preterit is the appro-priate tense to express the “interrupting” action.

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