Imperfect and Preterite Tenses in Spanish?

Question

I tried to match them all up but please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks!

1. For "ate"- "comió" is preterite and "comía" is imperfect?
2. For "did"- "hizo" is preterite and "hacía" is imperfect?
3. For "directed"- "dirigió" is preterite and "dirigía" is imperfect?
4. For "lived"- "vivió" is preterite and "vivía" is imperfect?
5. For "spoke"- "habló" is preterite and "hablaba" is imperfect?
6. For "wrote"- "escribió" is preterite and "escribía" is imperfect?
7. "lloró" is preterite and "lloraba" is imperfect?
8. "cantó" is preterite and "cantaba" is imperfect?
9. "sufrió" is preterite and "sufría" is imperfect?
10. For "knew"- "conocía" is imperfect?
11. For "met"- "conocía" is imperfect?

Answer 1

Very good!!
Just one mistake

10.- Know can also be translated as "saber" so imperfect would be "sabía"

Answer 2

You won't read this in any grammar book, but one quick way to tell if something belongs in the imperfect or in the preterite tense is to ask yourself if you can see the event occurring in your mind's eye when you're talking about it. If you can, that's preterite. If it's blurry--not a specific event but more a set of circumstances in the past, that's imperfect. Let me give you an example: Consider the English sentence: "I went to that church when I was young." Let's look at the word "went" in the preterite and the imperfect. In the preterite, "Fui a esa iglesia cuando era joven" would imply that when you were young, you attended the church at some point in time. If you could remember, you'd see specifics: what you had on, how the weather was, how you went...it was an event that occurred. You might have actually belonged to a different church, but at a given point in time, you walked through the doors of that church and sat through a service. In the imperfect, "Iba a esa iglesia cuando era joven" would imply that the church in question was the church you belonged to. You're not seeing a particular happening in your mind...you may have visited other churches, you may have missed one Sunday and gone the next, or you may have attended midweek services in addition to Sunday services---you're not looking at a specific time when you went, just at the fact that attending that church was something that went on in your life when you were young. In other words, what you're looking at is the fact that you customarily attended this church--it "would go on" in the past, with no specific occassion under question.

Answer 3

You're OK on all but 11. The verb to meet in Spanish can not be used in the imperfect in Spanish in the affirmative. The only way to use "conocía" (imperfect) is in the negative - No lo conocía, hasta que lo conocí.

Answer 4

Apart from nr. 10 which could also be "sabía" as already everybody mentioned, the rest is perfect.

Great job.

Answer 5

They are quite well. The example you gave is for the 3rd person singula "el" o "ella"

For knew you can also translate as sabia.

Answer 6

The first eight (8) are fine.


10. know=conocer (knew)- conoció, conocía
know=saber (knew) - supo, sabía

11. meet - met - conoció, conocía

Answer 7

You probably want to use "saber" for "knew" 10. Other than that, looks good.

Answer 8

All correct.