En toda la carretera, creo que eran doce carriles, no había carros, nada más la carroza en la que iba la muñeca.Įvery October there was a huge pilgrimage. Cada octubre había una peregrinación grandísima. These aspectual differences are best understood in a narrative context where the imperfect is typically used to set the scene of a story by giving background information. In other words, an event in the preterit must be completed before another may be used in narration. The preterit on the other hand, indicates an action that is in a strict sequence in relation to another action. Actions in the imperfect may be simultaneous or overlapping.

The imperfect indicates an action that is ongoing or habitual. While both tenses refer to actions in the past, they are used for very different types of actions. The most important aspectual distinction in Spanish concerns the difference between the two most common past tenses: the imperfect and the preterit. Rather, aspect is concerned with making distinctions about the kinds of actions that are described by verbs: progressive actions, punctual actions, habitual actions, etc. AspectĪspect, unlike tense, is not concerned with placing events on a time line. In contrast, a tense comprising two forms, the auxiliary verb and the participle, is referred to as a compound tense (ie, the present perfect). For example, a tense with only one verb form is called a simple tense (ie, the preterit). Tenses are also described by their number of parts. Actions that occur before another action are described as being anterior. For example, the pluperfect tense indicates a past action that occurred prior to the the completion of another past action. However, some tenses establish their time frame by referring to other actions in the past or in the future. The time frame of an action is usually established by referring to the present moment for example, the preterit and the future are respectively past and future in relation to the present. Tense is the grammatical term that refers to the time when the action of the verb occurs: past, present, future.

Comparisons and Superlatives with Adjectives.

Moods in spanish