Imperfect tense or indefinite? (¿Imperfecto o indefinido?)

Hi, there! How are you doing? One of the common questions is: «what should I use: imperfecto or indefinite tense?» You haven’t got this distinction in English, but we have it in Spanish. We start!

For me, it’s different if I want to say: 

Last year I went to Madrid on holidays

I used to eat calamari twice a week when I was a child 

As you can see, the first sentence is an action completed in the past. In a concrete point in the past; for that reason, we use indefinite tense. Nevertheless, the second sentence is a repeted action in the past (twice a week, in this case), so we are doing a description about a past action. Hence, we use imperfect tense (imperfecto), when we talk about incompleted actions in the past. Why are they incompleted? Because they are in progress in the past. Also, we talk about descriptions related to actions which happened in the past.

Now, it’s your turn! Can you choose the correct verbal tense in these sentences?

1. El verano pasado fuimos / íbamos a Sevilla. 
2. Ayer comí / comía una tortilla de patata riquísima.
3. Cuando era pequeño, me gustaba / gustó ver los fuegos artificiales.
4. Estabais / estaban de vacaciones y un día nevó / nevaba mucho.
5. El mes pasado estaba / estuve en un hotel con unas vistas preciosas. 

You can find the solution at the end of this post. Please, share it if you’ve like it! if you want to contact me, write an email > belenriescospain@gmail.com

Take care!

Letras en Español – Belén Riesco (C)

1. FUIMOS (last summer we went to Sevilla) 
2. COMI (yesterday I ate a delicious tortilla de patata)
3. GUSTABA (when I was a child, I enjoyed seeing fireworks) 
4. ESTABAIS / NEVO (You were on holidays and one day snowed a lot)
5. ESTUVE (last month I was in a hotel with incredible views)