{"id":1442,"date":"2021-05-21T19:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T19:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-oneonta-spanish1-2-print-sp2021\/chapter\/introduction-to-13-2\/"},"modified":"2021-08-09T18:33:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T18:33:37","slug":"introduction-to-13-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-oneonta-spanish1-2-print-sp2021\/chapter\/introduction-to-13-2\/","title":{"raw":"20.2 Siempre hab\u00eda un festejo","rendered":"20.2 Siempre hab\u00eda un festejo"},"content":{"raw":"This unit is devoted to the understanding of the preterit and imperfect in Spanish. Many people refer to these as the \u201ctwo pasts\u201d in Spanish, but that is essentially untrue! In language there are three markers of time (tense), i.e the present, past, and future. But to express how an action extends over time, there is a little thing called \u201caspect.\u201d\u00a0 A verb tense can have either a perfect or progressive aspect. Think that the perfect tenses are so complete that they are perfect and that the progressive tenses are or were in progress and never completed. Let\u2019s take a look at two examples of the preterit and the imperfect:\r\n
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  1. Ella habl\u00f3 por tel\u00e9fono con su mam\u00e1.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Ella siempre hablaba por tel\u00e9fono con su mam\u00e1.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nBoth examples show the past tense but with different aspects: they have two different meanings. Which example shows a perfectly complete action in the past? Which one shows an action in progress that might have occurred various times? If you guessed that the preterit represents the perfect aspect and imperfect the progressive aspect then you are correct! #1 shows that she talked on the phone at either a specific time or it was a completed finished action. Whereas #2 shows a repeated or habitual action in the past that was never completed. So the next time you\u2019re stuck on preterit versus imperfect, think about aspect and what meaning you are trying to convey.\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

    This unit is devoted to the understanding of the preterit and imperfect in Spanish. Many people refer to these as the \u201ctwo pasts\u201d in Spanish, but that is essentially untrue! In language there are three markers of time (tense), i.e the present, past, and future. But to express how an action extends over time, there is a little thing called \u201caspect.\u201d\u00a0 A verb tense can have either a perfect or progressive aspect. Think that the perfect tenses are so complete that they are perfect and that the progressive tenses are or were in progress and never completed. Let\u2019s take a look at two examples of the preterit and the imperfect:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Ella habl\u00f3 por tel\u00e9fono con su mam\u00e1.<\/li>\n
    2. Ella siempre hablaba por tel\u00e9fono con su mam\u00e1.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Both examples show the past tense but with different aspects: they have two different meanings. Which example shows a perfectly complete action in the past? Which one shows an action in progress that might have occurred various times? If you guessed that the preterit represents the perfect aspect and imperfect the progressive aspect then you are correct! #1 shows that she talked on the phone at either a specific time or it was a completed finished action. Whereas #2 shows a repeated or habitual action in the past that was never completed. So the next time you\u2019re stuck on preterit versus imperfect, think about aspect and what meaning you are trying to convey.<\/p>\n

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      Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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