Spanish
Past-Tense Verbs
Up Close
SECOND EDITION
Eric Vogt, PhD
New York Chicago San Francisco Athens London Madrid
Mexico City Milan New Dehli Singapore Sydney Toronto
PRACTICE
MAKES
PERFECT
™
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iii
Contents
Overview of past tenses: Now and then v
1 The imperfect: Description and background 1
2 The preterite: Narration, or what happened? 10
3 The imperfect and the preterite together: Narrating and
describing in the past
22
4 The present perfect: What have you done for me lately? 39
5 The pluperfect: What happened before something else 51
6 The conditional: What would be and the future of the past 60
7 The conditional perfect: What would have been 73
8 The sequence of tenses: Observations on the indicative and
the subjunctive
82
Answer key 117
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v
Overview of past tenses
Now and then
As you have studied Spanish, you have probably had the feeling that there are just too
many past tenses. e frustration people encounter when they are trying to master the
irregularities of the preterite can make some want to give up, or resign themselves to being
speakers of one tense—the present.
Let pop psychology gurus say what they want about living in the now; in fact, we all
speak in the now, in the sense that there is no other time in which we can exist. For gram-
matical purposes, the present is best viewed as a dot moving on a timeline—representing
the moment or threshold of perception and utterance. us, the past is ever receding, with
each moment of importance marked like so many telegraph poles on a desert highway
seen from a speeding car.
We humans constantly report to each other what our day was like, or where we were
when a world event happened, what our rst date was like, or what had already happened
by the time we got home. In order not to be misunderstood, we require an arsenal of past
tenses, each with its particular relation to the present or to other moments in the past, in
order to communicate background information or circumstances surrounding events in
the past, or to tell our mother, spouse, or boss what had already happened to bring about
those circumstances. We also need to be able to express what might have happened if
events had been dierent. All of these subtleties are communicated in Spanish and English
by the use of the various past tenses. Consider how much and how oen we need to do this,
really need to do this—to satisfy our own need to connect with each other. Once we realize
the urgency of these complexities, it becomes clear how frighteningly dull the one-dimen-
sionality of a present-tense world would be. Worse still, in some circumstances, if we only
used the present tense the dangers of miscommunication could be truly life-threatening.
e past tenses we will examine in this book include the imperfect, preterite, present
perfect, pluperfect, conditional, and conditional perfect, as well as the subjunctive forms
of these tenses when subordinated to past tenses. us, following the rst seven chapters,
which cover the indicative forms of the past, chapter eight examines the imperfect sub-
junctive (i.e., simple, or one-word past subjunctive), the present perfect subjunctive, and
the pluperfect subjunctive.
As with everything in foreign language learning, it isn’t enough to grasp a concept or
even to know the forms. One has to learn to use them when they are needed. Just as you
can know the moves of chess pieces but miserably lose the game, you can know what you
want to say, know the words and concepts you need to use, but fail to apply them all
properly.
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vi Overview of past tenses
A little anecdote should suce to convince you. I once conducted an oral placement
test for a student who entered my oce quite eager to get control of the situation by impress-
ing me with a list of how many languages she could speak (as if it would matter when I lis-
tened to her try to speak the one I was there to test her in!). Aer a few simple questions in
the present tense, which she answered quite condently, I asked her a question about where
she was when the Berlin Wall came down. At this she stopped and, looking at me with that
look that deer have when confronted with an SUV on a dark highway, gathered her gram-
matical condence and hastened to explain: “Oh, oh! I know! You need me to use the pret-
erite and the imperfect! e imperfect is for where I was and the Berlin Wall coming down,
that would be in the preterite!” She placed in the next-to-beginner’s class—which was just
ne. In such a class, her knowledge of the rules placed her in a slightly more advantageous
position, but she still needed to acquire not only the vocabulary of innitive verbs, but also
to know their forms, regular and irregular, and all the other details that probably brought
you to the bookshelf and inspired you to open this book.
So if you have been struggling to master the forms and uses of the dierent past
tenses in Spanish, this book is for you. As you go through each section, testing yourself,
reecting on your errors, and reviewing all the while, also remember this: explaining is not
answering. e student who came to my oce could explain, but she could not answer.
Students who are not secure in their knowledge of the details, their knowledge of forms
and their uses, oen fall into the trap of thinking that if they just grasp the rules about
tense usage, they will be able to apply them when it is time to take the test. at just doesn’t
happen, any more than knowing black from white keys will help you play a piano. One
symptom I have noticed, and all language teachers notice, too oen, is that students who
have only begun to digest their language learning will regurgitate verb conjugation pat-
terns (oen with telling errors) in the margins of their quizzes and tests. It is tempting, and
we all understand it, but we also know that when students want to know the material in
order to use it meaningfully, they will write it between their ears. I welcome you, as a
reader of this book, to that category of dedicated learner.
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1
The imperfect
Description and background
Of all the tenses in the Spanish language, the imperfect might be described
as the most delightful. Although technically, the imperfect is one of two
aspects of the past tense, the other being the preterite, we will use the com-
mon nomenclature and refer to them both as tenses, to keep things simple.
e preterite and the imperfect are very commonly used together. Because
these two aspects of the past are so important, each of them will rst be
examined alone, the imperfect in Chapter and the preterite in Chapter ,
following which we will examine, in Chapter , the expressive power that
comes from the ways in which the two are used together.
e imperfect is delightful to English-speaking learners of Spanish
for at least four very good reasons. First, there are only three verbs in the
entire language whose imperfect forms are irregular (ser, ir, and ver). Let’s
get them out of the way:
SER IR VER
era éramos iba íbamos veía veíamos
eras erais ibas ibais veías veíais
era eran iba iban veía veían
e imperfect of hay (the impersonal verb meaning there is or there
are) is había, meaning there was or there were. Note that while hay
itself is irregular, in the imperfect the form is actually regular, since
it is derived from the helping verb haber (to have).
Secondly, there are just two sets of regular endings, one set for the -ar
verbs and one set that the -er and -ir verbs have in common. is feature
of the verb system occurs in other tenses as well, but since the imperfect is
usually the rst tense students learn aer some struggle with the three
conjugations of the present tense (and all their irregularities), this news
usually comes as a relief. ese two sets of endings for the three verb groups
·
1
·
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2 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
are shown below, using the usual model verbs hablar, comer, and vivir, which are always
regular:
HABLAR COMER VIVIR
hablaba hablábamos comía comíamos vivía vivíamos
hablabas hablábais comías comíais vivías vivíais
hablaba hablaban comía comían vivía vivían
irdly, the imperfect is elegantly economical—it reduces what in English is a verb
phrase (or periphrastic verb) into one single word. Take a look at the following examples:
Mientras iba a la playa, llovía. While I was going to the beach, it was
raining.
De niño, siempre jugaba en la arena. As a child, I used to play in the sand all
the time.
As a child, I would play in the sand all
the time.
As the examples above show, Spanish has a one-word tense to express what English requires
more than one word to express. e name of the tense, rightly understood from its Latin
root, even helps learners understand how actions in the past are viewed. When we use the
imperfect, actions are viewed in the past as in progress, not completely over. us, actions
expressed in the imperfect form a backdrop or background to other events, as will be seen
when the imperfect and the preterite are used together.
As the examples above also show, the Spanish imperfect should be used whenever
English employs the periphrastic constructions “was/were 1 verb in the -ing form” or
“used to 1 innitive.”
A note about the dangers of the English modal verb would (used in the second trans-
lation of the second Spanish sentence in the examples above): the English modal,
auxiliary, or helping verb would can be rendered in dierent ways in Spanish. Some-
times it can be translated into the imperfect subjunctive, to express, for instance,
what one was hoping that someone else would do (as we will see in Chapter , on the
sequence of tenses). At other times, it is a true conditional, expressing what would
happen if something else were the case. However, whenever would is used as an equiv-
alent of used to plus a verb, it must be rendered into Spanish using the imperfect.
Finally, the imperfect is delightful to most learners because the correspondence of
the English periphrastic forms to the Spanish one-word imperfect tense is highly reli-
able—not foolproof, but highly reliable. Some of the pitfalls will be explained later, in
Chapter , when we contrast the use of the imperfect and the preterite and show how they
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The imperfect 3
are used in common. (Perhaps a h reason could be thrown in for good measure: stu-
dents almost always nd the forms of the imperfect tense fun to pronounce. In particular,
the forms for the -er and -ir verbs help reinforce the fact that vowels bearing an accent are
to be stressed in pronunciation.)
ere are verbal clues that help learners remember when to use the imperfect. In fact,
due to their meaning, many expressions simply attract the use of the imperfect. e fol-
lowing are a few examples of such expressions. Once learners get the idea of the way the
imperfect views action in the past as a progressive aspect, they usually can think of or rec-
ognize many, many more:
mientras* while
siempre always
a veces sometimes
de vez en cuando once in a while
pocas veces seldom
muchas veces many times, oen
todos los veranos every summer
*And cuando, when synonymous with mientras.
A few more specic observations will reinforce the general concept of the imperfect
as a tense that portrays a past action as in progress. For instance, in order to tell the time
of day (that is, clock time), the verb ser must be in the imperfect. Likewise, to express a
person’s age in the past, the imperfect of the verb tener must be used.
Eran las cinco de la tarde cuando... It was ve in the aernoon when . . .
Ella tenía cuatro años cuando... She was four years old when . . .
e imperfect is not used to portray an action as beginning or ending. at is, it is
not used when the point is to make note of the beginning or end point of a past action. It
is used to bring to mind what used to happen (habitual or repeated action in the past), to
show what was happening at a particular time, and to describe past states of being—physi-
cal, mental, or emotional. Note how the imperfect is conrmed as the proper tense to use
in Spanish when the single English verb can be replaced by “used to 1 innitive” or “was/
were 1 verb in the -ing form.”
En la década de los sesenta, el twist era In the s, the twist was popular.
popular. . . . the twist used to be popular.
Juan siempre trabajaba en casa el verano John always worked at home last
pasado. summer.
John was working at home all the
time . . .
Mi hermana estaba contenta en My sister was happy in New York.
Nueva York. My sister used to be happy . . .
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4 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
Typically, in combination with the preterite, the imperfect provides the temporal
background for other actions that began or ended within a given time frame; it is the func-
tion of the imperfect to establish that time frame. e actions that happen on that tempo-
ral stage are expressed in the preterite. Finally, the preterite and imperfect cannot be used
interchangeably without greatly altering the meaning of a sentence, even though the two
sentences may oen both be perfectly grammatical. is will be examined in greater detail
in Chapter , which is dedicated to comparing these two tenses.
1
·
1
EJERCICIO
Match the English verb phrases on the left with the Spanish imperfect forms on
the right. Since rst- and third-person singular forms are identical and since the
third-person forms (singular and plural) are used for more than one set of
subjects each, some of the forms on the right will be used more than once.
1. she was writing a. hablaban
2. we used to go b. escuchaba
3. you (Uds.) used to travel c. trabajaba
4. you (tú) were seeing d. hablábamos
5. I used to make e. corrían
6. he used to write f. preguntaba
7. she was (ser) g. buscábamos
8. they were traveling h. comía
9. you (Ud.) used to be (ser) i. escribía
10. you (tú) were looking for j. era
11. I was eating k. hacía
12. she was making l. veías
13. we were going m. trabajaban
14. we used to look for n. íbamos
15. he used to eat o. buscabas
16. I was asking p. viajaban
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The imperfect 5
17. they were running
18. we were talking
19. I was working
20. you (Ud.) used to listen
21. you (Uds.) used to run
22. they were talking
23. he used to work
24. he was listening
25. she was working
1
·
2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the correct imperfect forms of the verbs in parentheses.
1. El coro mientras los eles comulgaban. (cantar)
2. El verano pasado, nosotros siempre en ese restaurante.
(comer)
3. Mientras yo , mi esposa .
(dormir/leer)
4. Mi padre mucho en esa época. (trabajar)
5. En la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su abuelo soldado. (ser)
6. Durante mis años en la universidad, yo todas las noches.
(estudiar)
7. El poeta cada noche hasta dormirse sobre el escritorio.
(escribir)
8. Ella a sus padres cada n de semana. (visitar)
9. Los exploradores del siglo XVI siempre a lugares
exóticos. (ir)
10. Los babilonios los astros todo el tiempo. (observar)
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6 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
11. Romeo un gran amor por Julieta. (sentir)
12. Aunque él hacerlo, la idea no le .
(poder/agradar)
13. Aunque yo la bien, no con ella.
(conocer/salir)
14. Desde la ventana del tren, yo las lejanas montañas. (ver)
15. Tú ya la respuesta a esa pregunta en la clase ayer. (saber)
16. Anoche, mientras el ladrón la puerta, el guardia lo
en silencio. (abrir/esperar)
17. Mientras tú las noticias, me
anonadado. (oír/mirar)
18. Ayer no nadie en la biblioteca. (haber)
19. Einstein mucho en la naturaleza del universo. (pensar)
20. Yo sé que mi mamá me mucho en esos años. (querer)
1
·
3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Los chicos no querían volver a casa porque se divertían mucho jugando al fútbol.
2. Los caballos galopaban por las pampas por varias horas en busca de agua.
3. ¿Cómo te sentías cuando tu hija iba a casarse?
4. Mientras yo escribía estos ejercicios, escuchaba música latina.
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The imperfect 7
5. Yo surfeaba cada tarde por seis horas cuando vivía en Hawai.
6. Para llegar a ser una pianista experta, ella practicaba todos los días.
7. Mi esposa preparaba muchos platos típicos mientras trabajábamos en el jardín.
8. El trabajo era muy duro y tomábamos mucha agua todo el día.
9. Aunque lo agarraban siempre que cruzaba la frontera, volvía con las mismas
ganas.
10. Ese muchacho a veces me ganaba los partidos de ajedrez que jugábamos.
11. Esa pareja antes bailaba toda la noche, pero ahora son un par de viejos
enamorados.
12. Poco a poco, íbamos penetrando en una región desconocida de la selva
amazónica.
13. La luna salía por el horizonte acuático a mi derecha mientras yo, a los 21° N.,
contemplaba la Osa Mayor.
14. Cuando yo era niño, tenía la mala costumbre de echarle mucha sal a la comida.
15. En la Edad de la Piedra, no había carros ni aviones.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 7 10/23/17 12:19 PM
8 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
1
·
4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. While they were traveling through the desert, they observed the many varieties
of cactus.
2. It was around two in the morning and they were reading.
3. Did you (tú) used to eat only vegetables when you lived in India?
4. Her friends used to believe that she was able to dance well.
5. We used to go to the movies nearly every night when we were living there.
6. While we were ying, none of the ight attendants was able to rest.
7. He was preparing the dinner and she was mixing the salad.
8. Every time they would come to our house, we would play cards until midnight.
9. There used to be no crime in this city.
10. When they were fourteen or fteen years old, they used to sleep on the beach.
11. In the distance, I could hear the train that was traveling to Chicago.
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The imperfect 9
12. He was reading but they were writing.
13. He was famous.
14. There were ve people in the restaurant last night at eleven o’clock.
15. Did they want to go with you?
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10
The preterite
Narration, or what happened?
If learners of Spanish want to succeed in the long run, they must master the
indicative forms of the present and preterite, for their own sakes and because
the present and imperfect subjunctive forms are based, respectively, on these
two tenses. is chapter will cover the preterite indicative for both regular
and irregular verbs, as well as the uses of the preterite. In addition, we will
make observations about four common verbs whose meanings in the pret-
erite are dierent from their meanings in the present or imperfect.
Aer having invested time and eort to master the patterns and
irregularities of the present tense, most learners experience some degree of
frustration as they encounter a new set of problems in the preterite. eir
consternation is understandable, since not only are they dealing with new
paradigms, regular and irregular, but most of the verbs aected are the
very same ones that were irregular in the present. e dierences in pat-
tern spell doom for learners who study haphazardly. ey will confuse the
types and patterns of irregularity and end up producing verb forms so
bizarre that no native speaker of Spanish is likely to understand them. is
chapter is designed to x that problem or, if possible, to prevent it
entirely.
Learners are encouraged to undertake a review of the present tense if
they are unsure of its patterns, since this book on the past tenses assumes
that they know the present well. Naturally, the book has been designed
knowing that, if you are indeed at the critical crossroads just described,
you are not alone in your frustration.
Regular verbs
First, let’s examine the morphology of the preterite; that is, its verb end-
ings. First we will look at the regular verbs, exemplied by hablar, comer,
and vivir. e rst thing that will particularly attract your attention is that
as in the imperfect, there are two, not three, sets of endings. e regular
-ar verbs have their own set of endings, while the regular -er and -ir verbs
share one set of endings.
·
2
·
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 10 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The preterite 11
HABLAR COMER VIVIR
hablé hablamos comí comimos viví vivimos
hablaste hablasteis comiste comisteis viviste vivisteis
habló hablaron comió comieron vivió vivieron
In order to internalize these patterns and keep from confusing them with the pres-
ent, it is good to seek patterns within the patterns and to contrast these with what happens
in the present. First, observe that in the rst- and third-person singular forms, in all cases,
the stress falls on the last syllable. (Remember that we are talking about only regular verbs
here.) e most common pitfall is to confuse hablo (present tense, I speak) with habló
(preterite, he or she speaks or you [Ud.] speak), either by misusing the accent mark when
writing or mispronouncing them.
Second, notice how the nosotros forms still end in -mos for all three conjugations.
is is something that will happen throughout the entire verb system in every tense and
mood, but what precedes the personal ending (including stem changes) is what identies
tense or mood. For the preterite of -ar and -ir verbs, there is no change from the present in
their nosotros forms. Context will be the only means of knowing whether they mean we
speak or we spoke, we live or we lived. For -er verbs, however, since they share the same
endings as -ir verbs in the preterite but not in the present, there is a dierence (comemos
vs. comimos).
Seeking out constants in the verb system, we next discover that the third-person plu-
ral forms still end with an -n; moreover, we see that the new feature in the preterite is that
all three third-person plural conjugations in the preterite now end in -ron. at leaves the
vowels between the stem and the personal ending requiring close attention (-a- for -ar
verbs; -ie- for -er and -ir verbs).
In the preterite, the tú and vosotros forms are so dierent from the tú and vosotros
forms of all other tenses and moods that most learners nd them easy to remember.
As for the third-person singular forms, keep the stressed end vowel in mind and do
not place the accent (in writing or in speaking) on the -i- of the -er and -ir forms. One
way to avoid this is to remember that the stress falls on the nal -ó for all three conju-
gations if the verb is regular.
Lastly, verbs whose innitives end with -car, -zar, and -gar are oen listed as irregu-
lar due to the spelling modication needed for the rst-person singular only, in the preter-
ite. Another way to look at these three groups of verbs is to remember that they are regular
in the way they sound, but that Spanish orthography requires the spelling changes, as the
following shows:
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 11 10/23/17 12:19 PM
12 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
busqué buscamos empecé empezamos entregué entregamos
buscaste buscasteis empezaste empezasteis entregaste entregasteis
buscó buscaron empezó empezaron entregó entregaron
Irregular verbs
Verbs that are irregular in the preterite are irregular in that they have new stems. Observe
the preterite of the verb tener, the model for all verbs that have a new stem in the preterite.
Note that regardless of whether an irregular verb ends in -ar, -er, or -ir, it shares this same
set of endings. Also observe that, unlike in the regular verbs, the nal vowel of the ending
of the rst- and third-person singular forms is not stressed:
tuve tuvimos
tuviste tuvisteis
tuvo tuvieron
e common verb dar is conjugated as if it were a regular -er or -ir verb, but with no
written accent on rst- and third-person singular forms:
di dimos
diste disteis
dio dieron
All of the irregular stems ending in -j omit the -i- of the third-person plural ending
in the preterite. Other than that, they use the same pattern of endings as the rest of the
irregular preterite verbs:
conduje condujimos
condujiste condujisteis
condujo condujeron
Reviewing the peculiarities of the verbs that are irregular in the preterite, we nd that
() they all share one set of endings whether or not they are -ar, -er, or -ir verbs; () their
rst- and third-person singular endings are not stressed as are the endings of the regular
verbs; and () the verbs whose new stems end in -j drop the -i- from the third-person plural
ending. Remember that in the third-person forms of leer and creer the -i- becomes -y-.
Oen, the new stems of the verbs that are irregular in the preterite bear so little
resemblance to the stem of the present, or of the innitive, that the best strategy for learn-
ing them (which, strangely enough, is not found in any Spanish textbook I have ever seen)
is to memorize the yo form and tú form in the present, followed by the innitive, then the
yo form of the preterite. Following is a sampling of what learners should repeat and memo-
rize when learning new verbs, in order to attain clarity and condence in their knowledge
of the Spanish verb system:
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The preterite 13
hablo, hablas; hablar; hablé
como, comes; comer; comí
vivo, vives; vivir; viví
conozco, conoces; conocer; conocí
pienso, piensas; pensar; pensé
puedo, puedes; poder; pude
tengo, tienes; tener; tuve
estoy, estás; estar; estuve
digo, dices; decir; dije
quiero, quieres; querer; quise
vengo, vienes; venir; vine
sé, sabes; saber; supe
traigo, traes; traer; traje
traduzco, traduces; traducir; traduje
ando, andas; andar; anduve
When you know the verb forms listed above, you can derive all the other verb forms
from them. e beauty of this pedagogical method, in which the learner memorizes the
present and the preterite (with the innitive sandwiched in between), is that it works for
both regular and irregular verbs, as learners will discover upon examining the present and
preterite yo forms of various verbs in the paradigm.
Some learners may recognize that the method was derived by making a very slight
modication of the principal parts method for learning Latin verbs (used by schoolboys in
ancient Rome). Spanish, being a Romance language, responds very well to this system. It
works for almost all Spanish verbs. e exceptions are haber, ir, saber, and ser, whose
conjugations are best dealt with by memorizing their present subjunctive forms because,
unlike with other verbs, their present subjunctive forms do not t any pattern established
by their present indicatives (e.g., there is nothing in the form sé that suggests that sepa is
the yo—and also the third-person singular—form of the present subjunctive. But for all
other Spanish verbs, by memorizing the verbs as vocabulary items in the manner outlined
above, learners can foreground in their memory the principal patterns for deriving all the
forms for all the indicative and subjunctive forms, in both the present and preterite,
whether the pattern is regular or not!
In the preterite, one does not nd the shoe or boot pattern of vowel stem changes
found in the present, when the verb is conjugated in a grid consisting of three rows indicat-
ing rst-, second- and third-person and two columns, the le-hand one for the singular
and the right-hand one for the plural forms. A common and dangerous error that learners
make is to transfer the irregular pattern of one tense to another tense that does not actu-
ally share that pattern. Still, there are a handful of verbs that do have a stem-vowel irregu-
larity in the preterite. ey are servir, pedir, repetir, morir, and dormir. In the present
and preterite, the stem vowel -e- in servir, pedir, and repetir changes to -i-. In morir and
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14 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
dormir, the -o- changes to -ue- in the present but only to -u- in the preterite. In the pres-
ent, these changes occur in the shoe pattern, but in the preterite, these changes occur only
in the third-person, singular and plural, as seen below:
PRESENT: SHOE PATTERN PRETERITE: THIRDPERSON FORMS ONLY
sirvo servimos serví servimos
sirves servís serviste servisteis
sirve sirven sirvió sirvieron
PRESENT: SHOE PATTERN PRETERITE: THIRDPERSON FORMS ONLY
duermo dormimos dormí dormimos
duermes dormís dormiste dormisteis
duerme duermen durmió durmieron
Uses of the preterite
In terms of usage, the preterite is a tense that narrates past actions in the past and views
them as completed, over, done with. Julius Caesar’s famous line veni, vidi, vici (I came, I
saw, I conquered) were the Latin forms of what became the preterite of Spanish. Since the
preterite expresses actions as completed, if the beginning or end of an action is stated, or
some temporal beginning or end point is mentioned, only the preterite may be used. Con-
sider the following example:
Estuve en la biblioteca hasta las tres. I was in the library until three o’clock.
Since three o’clock is mentioned explicitly, the imperfect (estaba) is not admissible in this
sentence. If three o’clock had not been mentioned, but rather some vague notion of the
past, such as ayer (yesterday), then either the preterite or the imperfect could have been
used. e dierences of meaning that result from a choice between these two tenses will
be taken up in the following chapter.
ere are four verbs in Spanish that change their meaning when used in the preterite.
ey are querer, poder, saber, and conocer. Another way to look at this situation is to
remember that if the primary meaning of any of these verbs is needed in a past tense, then
the imperfect, not the preterite, must be used. (e contrast between the two tenses will be
discussed in more detail in the next chapter.) e preterite meaning of each of these verbs
is shown in the following examples. Note what happens, in particular, to querer and poder
when they are used in an armative or negative sense. e rst-person singular of each of
these verbs is shown here for the sake of brevity:
Quise abrir la ventana. I tried to open the window.
No quise abrir la ventana. I refused to open the window.
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The preterite 15
Pude abrir la ventana. I succeeded in opening the window.
I managed to get the window open.
No pude abrir la ventana. I failed to open the window.
I couldn’t get the window open.
Anoche, supe que Juan está en el hospital. Last night, I found out that John is in
the hospital.
No supe que Juan está en el hospital hasta I didn’t nd out that John is in the
anoche. hospital until last night.
Conocí a María en la esta. I met Maria at the party.
No conocí a María en la esta, sino en I didn’t meet Maria at the party, but
el parque. rather in the park.
In the following exercises, only the preterite will be called for. is is because of the
need to reinforce the many irregular stems that must be memorized in order to manage
this tense with condence.
2
·
1
EJERCICIO
Match the English verb phrases on the left with the Spanish preterite forms on
the right. Since the third-person forms, singular and plural, can refer to what are
six dierent subjects in English, some of the forms on the right will be used more
than once.
1. they wrote a. di
2. she did b. dijo
3. you (Ud.) made c. conduje
4. they came d. pusiste
5. he made e. no quiso
6. I succeeded f. vio
7. we were (estar) g. hablé
8. I brought h. pidieron
9. he and she served i. vivió
10. you (tú) said j. fui
11. they were (ser) k. tradujeron
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16 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
12. she and I had l. fueron
13. you (vosotros) ate m. dijiste
14. you (Uds.) translated n. tuvimos
15. he lived o. comisteis
16. they ordered p. estuvimos
17. you (Uds.) were (ser) q. traje
18. I went r. sirvieron
19. she refused s. vinieron
20. I spoke t. pude
21. he saw u. hizo
22. you (tú) put v. escribieron
23. she said
24. I gave
25. I drove
2
·
2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the correct preterite forms of the verbs in parentheses.
1. ¿Qué le tú a la señora en la tienda ayer? (decir)
2. Yo no la en la esta anoche. (conocer)
3. Ella no la suerte de Juana quien ganó la lotería el año
pasado. (tener)
4. Anoche, él que su equipo favorito ahora es el número
uno en el país. (saber)
5. Yo la cuenta anoche en el restaurante y salí en seguida.
(pagar)
6. La niña el cuento en media hora. (leer)
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The preterite 17
7. Juana no salir con él porque ese chico no tiene buenos
modales. (querer)
8. Tú nos un regalo cómico el Día de las Mentiras. (dar)
9. Tomás y yo demasiado pastel después de la cena.
(comer)
10. ¿No tú el partido en la tele anoche? ¡Fue un espectáculo! (ver)
11. Después de varias horas de trabajo, Juan sacar la piedra
del jardín. (poder)
12. Julio César un gran general romano. (ser)
13. Cuando empezó esa clase, yo a roncar. (comenzar)
14. Setenta y dos traductores la Septuaginta. (traducir)
15. Esa chica es inteligente; ¡Juan no convencerla a salir con
él! (poder)
16. Todos nosotros algo al picnic. (traer)
17. Luciano varios años en EE.UU. antes de morir. (cantar)
18. Mamá, ¿dónde mi camisa de seda? (poner)
19. Él invitarla a la esta, pero ella no
salir con él. (querer/querer)
20. ¿No tú a la playa la semana pasada? Perdiste un día muy
agradable. (ir)
21. Ellos allí tomando el sol por un par de horas. (estar)
22. Ud. a EE.UU. hace un año para trabajar en esta
compañía, ¿no? (venir)
23. Yo el guante en el teatro por media hora y no lo
encontré. (buscar)
24. Ellos en San Juan por cinco años. (vivir)
25. Uds. toda la noche sobre sus aventuras en Madrid.
(hablar)
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18 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
2
·
3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. La leche se estropeó después de tantos días en la refrigeradora.
2. Las tropas entregaron las armas después de perder la batalla.
3. Los peces tropicales murieron de una intoxicación de cobre en el tanque.
4. No quise estudiar química en la escuela.
5. Sus padres insistieron en ir a ver el drama de Navidad con los vecinos.
6. La acompañaste hasta su casa, ¿no?
7. La madre defendió a su hijo.
8. Ellas le pidieron un pastel al mesero.
9. Mis amigos decidieron abrir una cuenta bancaria en Suiza.
10. ¿Buscaste el perro por cuántas horas anoche?
11. Le pegó un rayo, provocando un incendio que consumió todo el edicio.
12. Él se durmió en clase.
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The preterite 19
13. ¿A quién le diste los pendientes? ¿A María o a Cristina?
14. Lo metieron en la cárcel por desfalco de fondos.
15. Empecé a cantar y mis amigos se taparon los oídos.
16. Tuvimos un examen en la clase de geometría esta mañana.
17. La niña apenas se cayó del columpio hace un minuto.
18. Conocí a ese actor en 1990.
19. Ellos condujeron a San Diego, tomando turnos de seis horas por tres días
seguidos.
20. ¿Quién me trajo este sombrero?
2
·
4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. We went to Vegas last month.
2. She and Teresa translated this article.
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20 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
3. I found out that she is honest when she told me the truth about her brother.
4. Did you (tú) try to open the door?
5. He and I came home very late last night.
6. I looked for them for an hour.
7. She failed to start the car.
8. Did you (tú) and John go to the cafeteria this morning?
9. She met her present (actual) husband at Juanita’s party last December.
10. They broke the window.
11. The waitress served us the sangría and tapas.
12. We couldn’t nd the suitcase.
13. I paid the cabbie and went to my hotel room.
14. They tried to nd us.
15. It started to rain as soon as the game began.
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The preterite 21
16. She and I met him at the soccer game.
17. We refused to buy the car.
18. They tried to climb the mountain.
19. He saw the movie three times.
20. They climbed the steps to the cathedral.
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22
The imperfect and the
preterite together
Narrating and describing in the past
Mastery of the use of the preterite and the imperfect together is one of the
rst big hurdles for learners of Spanish. In a few hours they can be secure
with the forms of the imperfect. In weeks, or possibly months, they can
feel secure about the forms of the preterite. By the time the forms of these
two tenses are mastered, they also should understand and appreciate them
as two aspects of the past that are not interchangeable. Yet, as all learners
and their teachers know from experience, it is one thing to understand the
concept and another to remember the details in the nick of time, especially
when speaking.
is chapter will put learners on the right path to making the proper
choice in each case and to gaining the condence that they are using them
correctly. It is likely that for some time, learners will remember the right
thing to say—aer they have made an error. is too is normal. In fact,
self-correction is an indication of emerging prociency and should be
regarded as encouragement to continue studying.
In the previous two chapters, the ways in which the preterite and the
imperfect view past action were examined separately. As was mentioned in
those chapters, the preterite and the imperfect are oen used together.
Learners can now begin to appreciate the richness of expression that
derives from their being used in tandem.
To review briey, the preterite views an action in the past as com-
pleted, or focuses on its beginning or end. By contrast, the imperfect views
actions in the past as a process whose beginning or end is not of interest.
is makes their combined use so expressively rich that the best word to
describe their reciprocal eect is cinematographic—they create vivid mov-
ing images in the minds of listeners and speakers. e imperfect, with its
focus on past actions as in progress, expresses most clearly and unmis-
takably what the background or circumstance is in which other actions
occurred. e function of the preterite is to relate the actions that occurred
in that circumstance. In the following two renditions of the same basic
sentence, note that it does not matter which tense comes rst. Note that
cuando (when) has the same meaning as mientras (while), in both Spanish
and English, when the imperfect is used.
·
3
·
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The imperfect and the preterite together 23
Los soldados no atacaron cuando la luna e soldiers did not attack when the
estaba llena. moon was full.
Cuando la luna estaba llena, los soldados When the moon was full, the soldiers
no atacaron. did not attack.
Of course, the imperfect is frequently employed to indicate the simultaneity of two
actions, processes or circumstances in the past. Observe below how the meaning of the
above sentences changes radically when both verbs are in the imperfect. Note too the var-
ious ways that English has for dealing with what the Spanish imperfect conveys so eco-
nomically with one word:
Los soldados atacaban cuando la luna e soldiers were attacking when the
estaba llena. moon was full.
e soldiers used to attack whenever the
moon was full.
e soldiers usually attacked while there
was a full moon.
e soldiers would attack when the
moon was full.
As the last example above reveals, when both verbs are in the imperfect, the imperfect also
has the function of telling what actions happened habitually or repeatedly in the past. e
sentence is a likely one if found in a description of some army’s prior tactical operations.
Examining this more closely, in the sentence in which the preterite and the imperfect
are used together, however, the preterite (no atacaron) can refer only to one particular
night of the month, during which the moon was full. In either case, however, only the
imperfect can be used when describing the full moon because the moon cannot suddenly
become full. Since the moon’s changes from phase to phase involve a process that is con-
tinuous and ongoing, describing a past situation in which the moon was in this or that
phase makes this natural phenomenon an ideal way to convey an understanding of the
imperfect and leads to a more certain mastery of the use of these two past tenses together.
Let’s examine two more pairs of sentences, each pair being rendered once with the
preterite and the imperfect contrasted, and then with both verbs in the imperfect. It is easy
to see how what one means to say determines the choice:
El barco se hundió cuando llegaba al e ship sank when it was arriving in
puerto. port.
El barco se hundía cuando llegaba al e ship was sinking while it was
puerto. coming into port.
La casa estaba quemándose cuando yo e house was burning when I arrived.
llegué.
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24 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
La casa estaba quemándose cuando yo e house was burning while I was
llegaba. arriving.
e house was burning while I was on
my way there.
e preterite is the only proper choice of past tense whenever a speaker is faced with
narrating a series of sequenced past actions. e famous line of Caesar when he returned
from the conquest of Bithynia in Asia Minor, already mentioned in Chapter —veni, vidi,
vici—is the classic example of this. e pithy phrase translates as I came, I saw, I conquered,
showing that these actions happened in just that order and thus rhetorically informed his
listeners that the whole matter of the Bithynian campaign was over and done.
Los niños se levantaron, se bañaron, se e children got up, bathed, got dressed,
vistieron y salieron corriendo al patio. and went running out to the patio.
Su padre tomó la iniciativa: vendió la casa His father took the initiative: he sold the
y se mudaron a la Patagonia. house and they moved to Patagonia.
Sometimes it is pointed out that the preterite is oen the right choice when the Eng-
lish uses a simple (one-word) form in the past. is rule of thumb is not fail-safe because
it can fail to take into account the meaning in English. erefore, to rene that rule and
make it far more reliable, keep this in mind: If the meaning of the one-word English form
remains unchanged when replaced by the English verb phrase “used to 1 innitive,” “was/
were 1 verb in -ing,” or “would 1 innitive,” the imperfect aspect is being expressed in
English and must be translated by the imperfect in Spanish. Examine the following exam-
ples (noting that the direction is from English into Spanish, the direction which causes the
confusion, of course, for English-speaking learners of Spanish):
While the boss spoke, we looked around Mientras hablaba el jefe, mirábamos
the room. por la sala.
She cooked for them when they lived here. Ella les preparaba la comida cuando
vivían aquí.
In the following example, notice how the use of the English one-word past form can
result in ambiguity, particularly if no context is provided or already understood:
When they ran down the hill, they could see the beach.
e speaker of the above sentence could mean to communicate any of the following
scenarios:
at time they ran down the hill, they arrived at a point where they saw the beach.
All the while that they were running down the hill, they were able to see the beach.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 24 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The imperfect and the preterite together 25
Depending on the terrain in question, the sentence could even mean:
When they started running down the hill, the beach was still visible (but not from
farther down the hill).
In Spanish, the proper choice of the past tenses will eliminate these ambiguities. In order
to begin to translate the original English sentence, contexts have to be guessed at, giving
three possible interpretations, as follows:
Cuando bajaron la colina, pudieron ver Once they got to the bottom of the hill,
la playa. they managed to see the beach.
Mientras bajaban la colina, podían ver While they were going down the hill,
la playa. they were able to view the beach.
Cuando se echaron a bajar la colina, se When they started down the hill, the
veía la playa todavía. beach could still be seen.
Notice that the English translations above are translations of the various conceptual inter-
pretations of the original ambiguous sentence. is is a short lesson in how the original
English sentence might have been improved so as to eliminate the ambiguity and suggests
the uniquely human quality of language.
Ser versus estar
One of the most challenging situations for English-speaking learners of Spanish is when
they are faced with was or were in English. e problem is compounded by the need to
decide which of the two possible Spanish verbs to use as well as whether to use the preterite
or the imperfect. Yet there is a simple decision tree that learners can use to greatly reduce
their errors when making the choice between the preterite and the imperfect in Spanish.
Remember that ser is the be verb used for expressing identity, possession, origin, and
material composition as well as, with adjectives, the normative or characteristic features of
a noun. Estar, on the other hand, the other be verb, is used for expressing health and loca-
tion as well as, with adjectives, for describing a noun with respect to some change of condi-
tion. Remember too that, depending on the use of ser or estar, an adjective oen expresses
a dierent idea. Observe the following examples:
Ser
Es un hombre. It’s a man.
Ese hombre es alto. at man is tall.
Ese hombre es José. at man is José.
José es de México. José is from Mexico.
José es de carne y hueso. José is made of esh and blood.
José es enfermo. José is sickly.
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26 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
Estar
José está aquí. José is here.
José está bien. José is ne.
José está enfermo. José is ill.
In the past tenses, the uses of these two verbs are just as strictly observed, but since
both the preterite and the imperfect are one-word forms, the decision of whether to use the
preterite or the imperfect can be perplexing. Interestingly, one can almost always use the
imperfect of estar and avoid the preterite. is one omission from one’s usual repertoire
simplies the learner’s task, because the resulting three choices for any given person and
number means that the rst question one needs to resolve is whether ser or estar is
needed—a question usually reducible to whether one is dealing with health or location.
en, if estar is needed, the decision is made and the imperfect can be used with
condence. e only time the preterite of estar is required is when a specic past time is
mentioned. Remembering that the preterite is used whenever the beginning or end point
of an action is implied or stated will help learners avoid making an error in those few
occasions.
Oye, Juan, ¿dónde estabas ayer? Say, John, where were you yesterday?
Oye, Juan, ¿dónde estuviste a las tres? Say, John, where were you at three?
Next, notice that the rst example below, like the second example above, makes
explicit reference to either a specic time or a clearly demarcated period. e second two
examples below are more interesting and show that if a speaker wishes to use a time frame
in a very literal way (semana being a seven-day period), the use of the preterite shows, in
the rst example, that the speaker’s sister was sick for the whole period. On the other hand,
if semana is meant to be not specic but rather a general time frame, during some part of
which the speaker’s sister was sick, then the imperfect is used:
Mi hermana estuvo enferma por un día. My sister was sick for a day.
Mi hermana estuvo enferma esa semana. My sister was sick all that week.
Mi hermana estaba enferma esa semana. My sister was sick sometime during that
week.
Finally, if it is ser that is needed, there remains only the question of whether to use
the preterite or imperfect of this verb. Reducing that problem is not dicult. If ser is
needed to summarize something, as if it were closing a door on a matter (period, full stop!),
the preterite will be used. If it appears to be inviting elaboration, the imperfect opens the
door to more information:
Simón Bolívar fue el George Washington Simón Bolívar was the George
de Latinoamérica. Washington of Latin America.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 26 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The imperfect and the preterite together 27
Simón Bolívar era un hombre muy famoso Simón Bolívar was a famous gure of the
del siglo XIX. Liberó... nineteenth century. He liberated . . .
In my introduction to the two examples above, I used the metaphor of closing or
opening a door. Another way of looking at the dierence between the preterite and the
imperfect is cinematographically: the imperfect is oen compared to a camera as it pans a
scene, acting as someone’s memory—but a scene in which nothing is happening, yet. e
description of such a scene in the past requires the use of the imperfect. Any action or
actions that happen in this ashback would be, if put into words, in the preterite. Another
analogy, also from the movies, is that if it is dealing with an action and not just a static
scene, the imperfect is like a slow-motion camera that catches an action in the middle of
things, since it focuses on the process, not the beginning or end of an action. Examine
these sentences in which the two tenses are used together:
Era una noche oscura y llovía cuando el It was a dark night and it was raining
asesino llegó a la ocina. when the murderer arrived at the
oce.
El asesino abría la puerta lentamente para e murderer was opening the door
no hacer ruido, pero el perro lo olfateó. slowly so as to make no noise, but the
dog smelled him.
Indeed, the famously clichéd horror-story beginning It was a dark and stormy night
places the reader or viewer in the midst of the situation. Likewise, in the second example
above, the slow opening of the door is in progress when the moviegoer’s eye or the reader’s
mind’s eye is treated to the opening scene. Despite being actions, they are presented as in
progress. ey are descriptive. ey do not advance the plot. e imperfect is the tense
used to present past actions in this descriptive way.
Note how the other actions in the examples above advance the story. ey move it
forward, and are said to be narrative. e murderer arrived. e dog smelled the mur-
derer. Once done, these actions cannot be undone. e expression of actions in this
manner is the function of the preterite.
Poder, querer, saber, and conocer
Once learners have a good grasp of the way in which these two tenses view time, that is, of
their being two aspects of the past, they can more easily appreciate how four verbs, when
used in the preterite, do not mean the same thing as their rst, standard dictionary
meanings. It may be more useful to look at this from the point of view of an English
speaker who has something to say in Spanish, and to restate the observation: there are sev-
eral past forms of English verbs whose meanings in Spanish are found in four verbs, and
these meanings are only obtained by using those verbs in the preterite. ese four verbs,
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 27 10/23/17 12:19 PM
28 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
with their standard meanings in parentheses, are: poder (to be able), querer (to want),
saber (to know—facts, information), and conocer (to know people or be acquainted with
something).
Since the preterite is used to depict actions either as completed (compressing time) or
as beginning or ending, these four verbs simply cannot mean the same thing in the preter-
ite. us, we can now learn which English verbs in the past correspond in meaning to the
preterite forms of these four Spanish verbs. Note that there are dierent English verbs cor-
responding to the armative and negative uses of poder and querer in the preterite:
Poder
Juan pudo escalar la montaña. Juan succeeded at climbing the
mountain.
Juan no pudo hacer el ejercicio. Juan failed to do the exercise.
Querer
Juana quiso abrir la ventana. Juana tried to open the window.
Juana no quiso salir con Enrique. Juana refused to go out with Enrique.
Saber
Lo supe cuando llegué a casa. I found it out when I arrived home.
No lo supieron hasta que se lo dije. ey didn’t nd it out until I told them.
Conocer
Juan conoció a María en la esta. John met Maria at the party.
Yo nunca la conocí. I never met her.
Another rule that reects the imperfective nature of certain types of actions is that
when telling time in the past or speaking of age in the past, the imperfect is nearly always
the only possible tense to use (unless the speaker is summarizing or condensing time, as in
the third example below). Just as the moon’s phases are a process and the moon does not
suddenly become full, quarter, or half, time and age (really the same thing, aer all) are
phenomena that involve the smooth onward-moving ow of time:
Yo tenía cinco años cuando aprendí a I was ve when I learned to ride a
montar en bicicleta. bicycle.
Eran las cinco cuando el barco llegó. It was ve when the boat came in.
Yo tuve quince años una vez y comprendo I was een once and understand how
lo que te sientes. you feel.
ere is one use of the imperfect that will be taken up in Chapter , on the condi-
tional: the use of the imperfect in indirect statements. e imperfect’s use is identical in
meaning to one of the two ways in which the conditional can be used in an indirect
statement.
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The imperfect and the preterite together 29
3
·
1
EJERCICIO
Preterite or imperfect? Fill in the blanks with the proper forms of the verbs in
parentheses.
1. Mientras anoche, yo dormía en el sofá. (llover)
2. Después de estudiar, mi amigo cinco millas. (correr)
3. Juan le una carta y yo estudiaba. (escribir)
4. ¿Qué tú después de ver la película? (hacer)
5. Ella lo aunque nadie creía que volviera. (esperar)
6. ¿Dónde estabas cuando sobre el accidente? (saber)
7. Para concluir, es obvio que John Lennon un músico
talentoso. (ser)
8. Aunque intentó varias veces, nunca escalar esa montaña.
(poder)
9. Cuando Caperucita Roja por el bosque, recogía ores. (ir)
10. Aunque yo lo hacer, nunca tenía sucientes ganas de
hacerlo. (poder)
11. Nosotros lo buscábamos toda la tarde, pero no por aquí.
(estar)
12. Fidel con elocuencia por siete horas. (hablar)
13. Nosotros tuvimos hambre, así que al Plato de Oro. (ir)
14. Tras varios años de noviazgo, Amaranta no casarse con
Crespi. (decidir)
15. Durante el viaje en tren, ellos por la ventana al desierto
que parecía no tener límites. (mirar)
16. De repente, mis amigos una orca. (ver)
17. Juanito, ¿qué te la maestra sobre lo que hiciste la
semana pasada? (decir)
18. Aquéllos días difíciles, pues no sabíamos si íbamos a vivir
o morir. (ser)
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30 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
19. El chico salir con María una vez aunque el padre de ella
lo odiaba. (querer)
20. Ella el libro en la silla porque no quería que nadie se
sentara en ella. (poner)
21. Los padres de Susana siempre le que saliera con
muchachos. (prohibir)
22. Yo deprimido aun antes de saber las noticias. (sentirse)
23. Él la caja con cuidado, temiendo una revancha de las
maldiciones de Pandora. (abrir)
24. Cantó el gallo y nos . (despertar)
25. Juan, ¿no la cuando estabas de vacaciones? (conocer)
3
·
2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper forms of the verbs in parentheses, using either
the preterite or the imperfect in the most logical way.
1. Desde San Francisco a Portland en tren, yo una novela,
pero tú el paisaje por la ventana. (leer/mirar)
2. El veterinario el perro y que no
tenía nada grave. (examinar/concluir)
3. Yo la a salir conmigo pero ella no
acompañarme. (invitar/querer)
4. Juan todo el día y luego toda la
noche. (trabajar/descansar)
5. Aunque ellas alcanzar la meta ese día, no la
. (intentar/lograr)
6. Las chicas y todas las noches en
el club. (cantar/bailar)
7. obvio que Juan celoso. (ser/
estar)
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The imperfect and the preterite together 31
8. Mis amigos asistir a la reunión, pero por las
circunstancias no . (querer/poder)
9. Mientras mi mamá el pastel, tú
la ensalada. (hacer/preparar)
10. El sábado pasado, el alpinista subir el Everest, pero a
causa del frío, no . (querer/poder)
11. Al paso que la secretaria el informe, lo
en su cuaderno. (escuchar/apuntar)
12. Teresa y Marta siempre ropa en esa tienda pero nunca
la . (comprar/llevar)
13. Tú a María cuando tú por el
parque ayer por la tarde. (ver/correr)
14. Cuando mi hermana a la escuela ayer no se
el parque a causa de la niebla. (ir/ver)
15. Después de que , Juan al béisbol
por un par de horas. (llover/jugar)
16. Tomás no lo hasta que lo con
sus propios ojos. (creer/ver)
17. Las niñas por el bosque y ores
al lado del sendero. (caminar/recoger)
18. Los tres cochinitos las casas pero luego no las
. (construir/vender)
19. La joven ir a la esta pero sus padres dijeron que
no . (desear/poder)
20. Cristóbal Colón desde España hasta que
a las Américas. (navegar/llegar)
21. Ayer (yo) a las siete y en
seguida. (despertarse/levantarse)
22. El anciano la puerta y las luces.
(abrir/encender)
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32 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
23. La semana pasada, nosotros la lección y
que la luna no es de queso. (leer/saber)
24. Tú la ventana pero no la
lámpara. (cerrar/apagar)
25. el telón y la orquesta a tocar.
(subir/empezar)
26. Tan pronto como ella lo , de él.
(ver/enamorarse)
3
·
3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Los obreros abrieron el puente tan pronto como llegó el barco.
2. Mis amigos comían pizza pero yo prefería estudiar.
3. Su novia decidió romper con él porque no le gustaban sus cigarillos.
4. Mientras íbamos al banco, supimos por la radio que alguien estaba robándolo.
5. Los fanáticos futbolistas quisieron entrar en el estadio, pero los guardias no los
dejaron pasar.
6. ¿No pudiste terminar la tarea? ¿Qué pasa? Es que no quisiste estudiar, ¿no?
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 32 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The imperfect and the preterite together 33
7. Pasaron varias semanas y por n ella le contestó con una larga carta,
explicándole que no quería casarse con él sino con otro.
8. Mientras los niños jugaban en el jardín, su madre subió a la recámara para
intentar dormir, pero no pudo.
9. Los bomberos llegaron al incendio y lo apagaron pronto.
10. Mientras volábamos de Madrid a Nueva York, miramos una película.
11. Los niños se vistieron, salieron a jugar y sólo regresaron cuando se ponía el sol.
12. Era un día fantástico: no hacía calor ni frío, no estaba nublado y yo no tenía nada
que hacer.
13. Cuando Juan tenía ocho años, su familia se mudó del D.F. a San Antonio.
14. Los caminos estuvieron cerrados por varios días, y cuando los abrieron, nadie
pudo manejar en ellos a causa de los árboles caídos.
15. En el momento en que sus padres entraron, su novio saltó por la ventana y se fue.
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34 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
16. Cada trueno hacía reverberar las ventanas; se sentía el frío entrar por debajo de
las puertas cuando, de repente, la puerta pareció abrirse sola y entró una gura
oscura.
17. Eran las cuatro cuando salimos del trabajo, pero no pudimos llegar a casa hasta
las nueve a causa del tráco.
18. El submarino descendió hasta que llegó a 2.000 pies bajo el nivel del mar, luego
se quedó inmóvil por varias horas.
19. Los políticos hablaban por horas y, como siempre, nadie les creía.
20. En la esta anoche, las chicas empezaron a bailar pero los chicos seguían
comiendo.
21. ¿Cuántos años tenías cuando tus padres te dieron permiso de salir solo al cine?
22. El perro dormía cuando el gato se comió toda su comida.
23. Cuando me desperté, el desayuno ya estaba listo.
24. Podíamos oler el café cuando entramos en el restaurante.
25. Cuando llegó mi padre, eran las ocho de la noche.
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The imperfect and the preterite together 35
26. Había mucha gente que quería asistir al concierto pero muchos no pudieron
porque no había sucientes asientos.
3
·
4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. Where were your friends when you (tú) got home last night?
2. The driver was sleeping when he lost control of the car.
3. What time was it when you (tú) came to my house?
4. Was she going to the party when it started to rain?
5. You (tú) nished the novel after I arrived.
6. The children did not know how to dress themselves.
7. What did you (tú) do last weekend?
8. When she learned what was happening at school, she called her friends.
9. Did you (tú) try to meet him when he came to visit us?
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36 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
10. It was snowing last week but it was not very cold.
11. They learned to read when they were seven years old.
12. She was twenty-seven years old when we met.
13. She put on her coat and left the house, even though it was raining.
14. He tried to sell the house, but couldn’t.
15. I refused to leave my dog alone when I went on vacation last month.
16. She met me at the university last year.
17. They always went shopping together, but they never bought anything.
18. I wanted to see the movie, but I couldn’t make it.
19. She tried to go to class, but couldn’t make it.
20. They wanted to go to the zoo, but they had to stay home.
21. My family used to go to the beach on weekends.
22. When he learned that she had gone out with his best friend, he refused to
believe it.
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The imperfect and the preterite together 37
23. They were watching TV when the lights went out.
24. He and I used to cook a lot.
25. Teresa and Martha wanted to call me, but their phone was not working.
26. My friend’s mother was talking on the phone when I tried to call him.
3
·
5
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks in the paragraphs below with the proper forms of the verbs in
the list above each paragraph, in either the preterite or the imperfect. Be sure to
read the paragraph well before you make any choices. Some verbs will be used
more than once.
aprender encontrar pensar creer haber
saber descubrir morir ser
A. Durante el siglo XV, muchos (1) que sólo
(2) tres continentes: Europa, África y Asia. No
(3) nadie de la existencia de los dos grandes continentes de
las Américas. ¡Aun Cristóbal Colón, quien “(4) ” el “Nuevo
Mundo”, (5) , hasta que (6) , que lo
que él (7) (8) parte de Asia! Después
de que él (9) , poco a poco los europeos
(10) más sobre este hemisferio. ¡ (11)
una época de maravillas!
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38 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
estar jugar querer gustar oír saber
haber llegar ser hacer poder ver
ir preferir volver
B. Los tres amigos (1) por la calle como les (2)
hacer siempre los días frescos de otoño cuando (3) buen
tiempo. Ellos (4) jugar al fútbol pero no (5)
si todos sus amigos (6) a venir o no. Cuando
(7) a la cancha donde generalmente (8)
los sábados, ellos (9) que (10) doce
compañeros de clase, listos para jugar. Desafortunadamente, después de hablar con
uno de ellos, (11) que su amigo Jorge no (12)
jugar ese día porque (13) enfermo. Cuando otros lo
(14) , no (15) jugar sin él y muchos
(16) volver a casa. (17) las cinco
cuando por n (18) a casa.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 38 10/23/17 12:19 PM
39
The present perfect
What have you done for me lately?
Conversations I have had with professors who have observed the linguistic
habits of students over the past twenty-ve years have led me to suspect
that the use of the present perfect in American English has been in slight
decline over this period. Our collective anecdotal data suggest that the
awareness of why the present perfect is not only useful but needful seems
to be eluding many college students today.
e present perfect is necessary and always has been. e degree of
precision that it gives to the information one communicates can be found
by considering two answers to the common question: “Are you hungry?”
e following two replies to that question exemplify how much richer one’s
communication can be and should be, not in stylistic terms, but in con-
crete informational ones, when using the second reply, an example of the
present perfect tense in Spanish and English:
Ya comí, gracias. I ate, thanks.
He comido, gracias. I have eaten, thanks.
Take a look at the verb phrase in the second reply. It consists of the
verb have, used in its capacity of a helping, or auxiliary verb, plus the past
participle (or, as it is sometimes called, the passive participle). In most spo-
ken English, the tendency to contract the helping verb into the subject pro-
noun, by saying I’ve eaten, thanks, is possibly what partially obscures
people’s awareness of this tense. In Spanish, the helping verbs cannot be
contracted.
e good news for English speakers is that in Spanish, this tense is
used in exactly the same way and is formed grammatically in the same
manner as in English. English uses the same verb, to have, both to mean to
possess and to function as a helping verb. In Spanish, on the other hand,
the verb haber is used almost exclusively as a helping verb for all the per-
fect tenses (those consisting of some form of haber plus the past participle
of the main verb). e present perfect is only one of seven perfect tenses,
all of which will be covered in later chapters.
e name of the tense, present perfect, gives us a good sense of its
function. From the name perfect, we know that some action was performed
in the past, since per 1 factum means completely done. From the word
present, we learn that somehow, the action performed earlier still exerts
·
4
·
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40 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
some force on the moment of speaking. For this reason, the preceding example, I have
eaten, is a good one to remember when dealing with the concept of the present perfect. e
person is too full to eat again. Hence the prior action, eating, is still exerting a force on the
speaker at the moment of speaking.
Furthermore, from a morphological point of view, when one refers to a perfect tense
in English or Spanish, by denition it can only be a tense that is formed using some form
of have or haber, plus a past participle. e present perfect is formed using the present
tense of the helping verb haber plus the past participle of any verb one wishes to use in the
present perfect tense. Here are the forms of the helping verb haber in the present tense:
he hemos
has habéis
ha han
e past (or passive) participle of each verb in Spanish is invariable; that is, it has one
form only that is used with the various forms of haber to form all the perfect tenses. is
should be extremely good news for learners. ere is a bit more good news. ere are only
a dozen important irregular past participles.
Past participles
e regular past participles of innitive verbs ending in -ar are formed by dropping the
-ar and adding -ado. e stress is placed on thet next-to-the-last syllable (no written accent
is used). Here are a few examples:
hablar hablado
trabajar trabajado
empezar empezado
excavar excavado
e regular past participles of innitive verbs ending in -er and -ir share one ending:
the -er or -ir is dropped and changed to -ido. e stress is likewise placed on the next-to-
the-last syllable, without a written accent, just as with -ar verbs. Examine the following
examples:
comer comido
vivir vivido
tener tenido
vender vendido
comprender comprendido
ere are, as mentioned earlier, a handful of important verbs whose past participles
are irregular. In addition to these important verbs, which are listed on the next page, any
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 40 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The present perfect 41
verb compounded from a verb on the list will also form its past participle in the same way
as the listed verb.
Keep in mind that verbs compounded from a prex 1 the less used verb solver form
their past participles ending in -suelto, such as absolver absuelto and resolver
resuelto. One way to remember this is to notice that they rhyme with the past parti-
ciple of volver, which is vuelto.
abrir abierto
cubrir cubierto
decir dicho
escribir escrito
freír frito
hacer hecho
morir muerto
poner puesto
romper roto
ver visto
volver vuelto
In addition to the verbs on the list above, the verb imprimir (to print, as in a printing
press or laser printer) has two acceptable past participles: impreso and imprimido,
the latter being more common in Latin America for forming the perfect tenses and
the former preferred by the Spanish Royal Academy. However, impreso is used every-
where as the base adjective, such as in the expression una etiqueta impresa (a printed
label).
When a reexive verb is conjugated in any of the perfect tenses in modern Spanish,
except in cases of rare rhetorical ourishes, the reexive object pronoun is always placed
before the helping verb. Observe the following examples:
Su perro se ha muerto. His dog has died.
Las niñas se han vestido solas. e little girls have dressed themselves.
¿No te has bañado ya? Haven’t you bathed yet?
Nos hemos levantado temprano. We have gotten up early.
e name participle helps learners understand an important fact about the use of this
form, namely that participles participate in two grammatical functions. One could say
they have a double life. When the past participles are used with haber to form the perfect
tenses, as we have just been discussing, they are invariable in form and participate in the
language as part of a verbal construction. In that role, they have no gender and their ending
in -o is not to be considered a gender marker of any kind.
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42 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
Participle used to form perfect tenses: Invariable participle
He hablado todo el día. I have spoken all day.
Han construido la casa. ey have built the house.
¿Has hecho la tarea? Have you done the homework?
On the other hand, these participles also participate in the language as adjectives, in
which case the ending is modied to agree with the noun or nouns they modify in gender
and number. is occurs in three ways. First, a participle can function as an adjective,
directly following the noun. Secondly, a participle can function as a predicate adjective,
following some form of a be verb (i.e., ser or estar). (It oen helps to view the be verb as an
equals sign between the noun-subject and the adjective in the predicate [i.e., the adjective
that follows the be verb].) Finally, a participle can be the participial component of a passive
construction. In distinguishing the passive construction from constructions with be verbs
and participles used as predicate adjectives, note that true passive constructions can only
be formed with ser as the be verb. e following examples use the past participles in the
feminine form, including one in the plural as well, to show more clearly how and when
they function as adjectives in the three situations just described.
Past participle as an adjective
Tengo muchas cartas escritas por mi I have many letters written by my
abuelo. grandfather.
Past participle as a predicate adjective
La tienda está abierta todos los días. e shop is open every day.
Past participle in a passive voice construction
La casa fue construida por los carpinteros. e house was built by the carpenters.
4
·
1
EJERCICIO
Indicate whether the past participles in the following sentences are verbal
constructions (V), purely adjectival—modifying a noun directly (A), a predicate
adjective (PA), or a true passive construction (TP).
1. Hay pocos políticos que siempre han dicho la verdad.
2. La ventana está abierta.
3. Estos productos fueron hechos en México.
4. Puesto el yelmo y probada la espada, Don Quixote salió del corral.
5. Tengo varios libros escritos en el siglo XIX.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 42 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The present perfect 43
6. La madre de ese chico ha desaparecido.
7. Juan ha cerrado la puerta.
8. Hemos hecho todo lo que tuvimos que hacer.
9. Juan y María están casados.
10. La estatua fue puesta en su lugar por los veteranos.
11. Se me ha roto la bicicleta.
12. Los niños fueron llevados a la cama llorando.
13. Juan y María fueron premiados por sus contribuciones a la medicina.
14. Esos muchachos se han puesto las botas para montar a caballo.
15. Los náufragos tenían muchas cosas improvisadas para ayudarles a
preparar la cena.
16. ¿Has visto el Mar Rojo alguna vez?
17. El carro está descompuesto ahora.
18. Se han impreso los materiales para la campaña publicitaria.
19. Los primeros rascacielos fueron construidos en Nueva York y Chicago.
20. JFK está muerto.
4
·
2
EJERCICIO
Write the present perfect of the following verbs, for the subjects indicated.
ExamplE tú/hablar
has hablado
1. ella/escribir
2. yo/ver
3. ellos/correr
4. usted/ser
5. yo/hacer
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44 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
6. ellos/morirse
7. ustedes/ir
8. tú/comer
9. él/dar
10. yo/ponerse
11. nosotros/abrir
12. vosotros/acostarse
13. yo/acostarse
14. tú/decir
15. usted/dedicarse
16. él/romper
17. yo/volver
18. tú/creer
19. ellas/resolver
20. nosotros/imprimir
4
·
3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Se nos ha roto el arado.
2. No le ha dicho la verdad a su novio.
3. Visto el espectáculo, se fueron de la carpa.
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 44 10/23/17 12:19 PM
The present perfect 45
4. Debido a la tormenta, se ha caído un árbol enorme en el parque.
5. Ella se ha casado con Juan.
6. Están cansados los niños porque han jugado toda la tarde.
7. No he visto maravilla, pues; porque no he ido a Sevilla nunca.
8. Ha habido tantos que han sido encarcelados en los últimos años que hay una
nueva prisión construida en otro pueblo cercano.
9. Tu amigo, ¿ha hecho la tarea?
10. Tenemos la casa abierta desde las cuatro de la tarde hasta las seis, durante el
verano.
11. He puesto un nuevo CD de amenco en el tocador para escucharlo.
12. Ellos dicen que el problema ha sido resuelto, pero que la máquina dañada
todavía está en el sitio de construcción.
13. El concierto ha empezado.
14. Pandora ha abierto la caja.
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46 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
15. Esa pareja vecina que peleaba tanto ha roto relaciones.
16. ¿Has visto jamás tal desfachatez?
17. Hemos oído hablar mucho de ese político y no nos cae bien.
18. El boxeador se ha caído por tercera vez.
19. No sé lo que has hecho, pero ha causado muchos problemas.
20. María se ha enamorado locamente de él.
4
·
4
EJERCICIO
Create complete sentences using the following elements, taking care to form the
present perfect of the innitives given.
1. Yo/ver/partido/en la tele/hoy.
2. Sus jefes/darle/un aumento de sueldo.
3. Ellos/siempre/vivir/en esta ciudad.
4. Tú/hacer/todo/trabajo.
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The present perfect 47
5. Yo/poner/papeles en la mesa.
6. Mi madre/preparar/cena fantástica.
7. ¿Adónde/ir/mi perro?
8. El periódico/ser/impreso.
9. Nosotros/escribir/carta/abuelos.
10. Los niños/ponerse/los zapatos, ¡por n!
11. Ella/romperse/la pierna. No debe esquiar.
12. Él/competir/su hermano/desde que estaban en la secundaria.
13. Ella/vestirse/para ir/baile.
14. Ellos/imprimir/el periódico.
15. Las modelos/maquillarse/y están listas para exhibir los nuevos estilos.
16. El carro/chocarse/árbol.
17. Su abuelo/morirse.
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48 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
18. Su relación/acabarse.
19. Ella/perder/llaves.
20. Susana/decir/mentira.
4
·
5
EJERCICIO
This is a two-step exercise. First, translate the following sentences from English to
Spanish. Second, rewrite the sentences, replacing any and all object nouns with
the appropriate object pronouns, taking care not to confuse objects of verbs
with objects of prepositions. It is a good idea to use a dictionary to learn the
many useful nouns in these examples. For some items, there will be only one
sentence.
1. The teacher has brought us the cake.
2. The cat has eaten the bird.
3. We have written the letters to our customers.
4. The managers have given him a promotion and a raise.
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The present perfect 49
5. The driver of the cab has taken me to my favorite hotel.
6. The secretaries have put the documents in the le.
7. I have listened to the song.
8. The judge has died.
9. You (tú) have told her the truth.
10. We have found out (saber) what she has done to him.
11. Have you (ustedes) read the news?
12. They have tried (tratar de) to buy the stocks.
13. What have you (tú) told them?
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50 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
14. She has broken the toy.
15. Have they repaired the computer?
16. I have returned to the city.
17. My friends have sent me a gift.
18. They have gone shing.
19. Susana and Juan have separated.
20. I have seen her in the grocery store.
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51
The pluperfect
What happened before something else
e pluperfect is best described and understood as “the past of the past.”
In both English and Spanish it is the tense used to express the proper
sequence of two or more past events regardless of which is actually men-
tioned rst. Without the pluperfect, expressing the sequence of multiple
events in the past would require the use of the simple past tense, in the
actual sequence of events. It is oen more economical to use simple past
tenses in the actual order anyway, particularly when dealing with cause
and eect, as the following examples show:
El carro se coleó y se chocó e car skidded and hit the cyclist.
con el ciclista.
Rompió la ola y el surfeador e wave broke and the surfer fell.
se cayó.
Juan estudió y aprobó la clase. John studied and passed the class.
On the other hand, if two past events are unrelated, using the pluper-
fect eliminates ambiguity for intelligent speakers of English and Spanish.
In other words, the use of the pluperfect allows a speaker to avoid commu-
nicating a mistaken impression that one event in the past caused another.
e examples below demonstrate how the cause-and-eect relationships
expressed in the rst two sentences above are undone by the use of the
pluperfect; in the sentences below, note also that, instead of y (and), the
temporal adverb cuando (when) serves to link the two verbs and further
reinforces that one event did not cause the other. And note that when the
pluperfect and the simple past are used together, their relative positions in
the sentence do not aect the meaning:
Cuando el carro se coleó, ya When the car skidded, it had
se había chocado con el already hit the cyclist.
ciclista.
Se había caído el surfeador e surfer had fallen when the
cuando rompió la ola. wave broke.
e rst sentence above shows how important the pluperfect can be.
e version of the sentence in which two simple past tenses were used
communicates that the car skidded rst and then, as a result of the skid-
ding, hit the cyclist. By stating the situation as a sequence of two past
actions (using the preterite), it implies that the skidding was no fault of the
·
5
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52 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
driver’s and, thus, that hitting the cyclist was an unavoidable accident. However, in the
second version of the sentence, when the pluperfect is used with the verb chocarse (to hit
or crash into), it is clear that the driver was in control of the vehicle before hitting the
cyclist. It’s easy to see how important the pluperfect could be in a courtroom!
Just as the present perfect indicative is formed by using the present tense of the help-
ing verb haber plus the invariable past participles (regular and irregular), the pluperfect
indicative is formed by using the imperfect indicative of haber, plus the same invariable
past participles. e imperfect indicative of haber is regular (as is the case with all but three
verbs in the language) and always translates as had. Looking at this fact from the perspec-
tive of an English speaker who needs to put his or her English thoughts into proper Span-
ish, when going from English to Spanish, the simple English verb form had (the past of to
have) will be rendered by one of the six forms of haber in the imperfect indicative. Note
that the pattern of the verb haber in the imperfect is the same as that for all other verbs in
the imperfect, in that the rst- and third-person singular forms are identical. In order to
avoid confusion, it could be helpful to contrast the imperfect of haber, shown below, with
the present of haber, presented in the previous chapter. Here are the conjugations of the
imperfect of haber:
había habíamos
habías habíais
había habían
ere is more good news for English speakers, which should be clear from the exam-
ples above: the usage of the pluperfect is the same in both languages. e pluperfect is
always and only about expressing an action or event that happened prior to some other
past event, expressed in either the preterite or the imperfect. Just as in English, the order
of the clauses is unimportant, since the pluperfect explicitly shows the action that hap-
pened rst:
Todos los melones se habían vendido All the melons had been sold when they
cuando ellos fueron al mercado. went to the store.
Intentábamos arrancar el carro, pero se We were trying to start the car, but it had
había descompuesto. broken down.
Ella quería hablar con él, pero se había She wanted to talk to him but he had
dormido. gone to sleep.
Abrieron la tumba pero había sido robada. ey opened the tomb but it had been
robbed.
Los niños se habían acostado cuando vino e children had gone to bed when
Santa Claus. Santa Claus came.
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The pluperfect 53
5
·
1
EJERCICIO
Match the following Spanish pluperfect verb forms with their English pluperfect
translations.
1. habían hecho a. they had written
2. había visto b. he had told
3. habías comido c. she had seen
4. había puesto d. they had eaten lunch
5. habíamos hablado e. he had done
6. había abierto f. he had gotten up
7. habían almorzado g. you had opened
8. se había levantado h. you had eaten
9. habíais dicho i. we had spoken
10. habías roto j. they had made
11. se había acostado k. you had said
12. había dicho l. you had gone
13. habían escrito m. he had placed
14. había hecho n. you had broken
15. habías ido o. she had gone to bed
5
·
2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper pluperfect forms of the verbs in parentheses.
1. Yo sabía que ella me amaba, aunque no me lo
. (decir)
2. Decidimos ir al cine, aunque mi novia ya
la película. (ver)
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54 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
3. Juan se olvidó de que ya le la
pulsera a su esposa. (dar)
4. Afortunadamente, los García
cuando se encendió el bosque. (mudarse)
5. Los exploradores explorar esa
región de la selva por varios años cuando recibieron el permiso para hacerlo.
(querer)
6. Mis padres estaban listos para salir y vieron que yo
los zapatos. (ponerse)
7. Cuando llegaron a la playa, vieron que Juanita ya
. (irse)
8. El ladrón quiso evitar el cargo pero no fue posible, porque ya todos lo
cuando abría la ventana. (mirar)
9. La tragedia de su relación fue que cuando él se dio cuenta de cuánto lo quería
María, ella, desesperada por su aparente indiferencia, le
una carta en la que expresaba su furia sobre su actitud y
rompió con él. (enviar)
10. Después de subir la montaña, Juan vio que las cuerdas para descender
.
(romperse)
11. Cuando murió Lope de Vega,
unas 1.800 obras de teatro. (escribir)
12. Después de que el cura lo , el
libertino volvió a pecar. (absolver)
13. Las señoras salieron del almacén y se dieron cuenta de que no
. (pagar)
14. No todos los miembros del club de libros
la novela antes de reunirse para discutirla. (leer)
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The pluperfect 55
15. Cuando yo volví a la tienda del joyero, vi que
el anillo que me gustaba. (vender)
16. Aunque los diplomáticos en son
de paz, trajeron opresión. (venir)
17. Nosotros la cama cuando llegó
el taxi. (hacer)
18. Me invitaron a cenar, pero ya .
(comer)
19. Me volví para sostenerla pero ya
. (caerse)
20. Los médicos al paciente antes
de las tres de la tarde. (examinar)
5
·
3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Cuando el mono llegó al pie del árbol, el tigre ya había llegado.
2. ¡Los astronautas descubrieron que alguien había llegado al planeta antes que
ellos!
3. Se dio prisa para llegar al hospital a tiempo, pero su esposa ya había dado a luz
cuando llegó.
4. El capitán de la expedición había muerto antes de llegar a la fuente del río.
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56 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
5. Cuando los primeros seres humanos aparecieron en África, los dinosaurios ya
habían desaparecido.
6. Cuando supieron lo que pasaba con la economía, era tarde; ya habían puesto sus
fondos en bonos jos que no iban a poder vender por cinco años.
7. Cuando salió la novela Persiles en 1616, Cervantes había muerto.
8. Fui a la tienda a las ocho, pero no la habían abierto sus dueños.
9. Colón no puede considerarse el descubridor del Nuevo Mundo ya que cuando él
llegó, hacía milenios que los amerindios lo habían descubierto.
10. Habíamos resuelto el problema con el auto cuando el mecánico vino.
11. Según algunos médicos, cuando se dice que un anciano se cayó y se rompió la
cadera, es porque ya se le había roto la cadera, provocando la caída.
12. Cuando Tomás mandó la carta, su novia ya había ido de vacaciones.
13. Los padres les dijeron a sus hijos que los regalos eran de los Tres Reyes Magos,
pero ya los habían visto debajo de la cama.
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The pluperfect 57
14. Queríamos saber si ya se había hecho el pastel para la esta.
15. Alguien había robado la casa porque vimos que la ventana había sido rota desde
afuera y la puerta de enfrente había sido abierta desde adentro, por la cual salió
el delincuente, sin duda.
16. Cuando el profesor me mencionó la idea, me di cuenta de que nunca lo había
pensado.
17. Su esposa quería hablarle un rato más pero él se había dormido.
18. Llegaron varias personas a la venta pero la cocina ya había cerrado.
19. Los niños querían nadar pero ya se había puesto el sol.
20. Eran las tres de la mañana y no me había dormido cuando terminé este ejercicio.
5
·
4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. Dinner was ready but the children had not washed their hands.
2. We climbed the mountain to see the sunrise but it had risen already.
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58 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
3. The kittens had been born before the party on Saturday.
4. He had decided to tell her about the trip before Tuesday.
5. When she called him, he had already invited her sister to the dance.
6. They returned home at nine, but the movie had ended already.
7. He wanted to surprise her but she had seen the ring already.
8. The children had opened the window before the storm.
9. She had not told him about her other boyfriend when he saw them in the
restaurant.
10. When we hung up the phone, I still had not found the article.
11. The train was arriving and they still had not opened the station.
12. He had not died when the war ended.
13. When his grandparents came to the United States, he had not been born yet.
14. My friend had moved before receiving the letter.
15. The article had been written before last Sunday.
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The pluperfect 59
16. She had put on her coat when she noticed it was not cold.
17. My friend and I had never seen the ocean until we were ten years old.
18. He had not heard of that musical group until he saw a magazine article about
them.
19. When he returned from the war, he found out that his girlfriend had gotten
married.
20. Had you read the reports before the committee met?
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60
The conditional
What would be and the future of the past
Technically speaking, the conditional is not a tense. is is because it does
not convey any notion of, or reference to, the time of an action. It is a
mood, along with the innitive, the two participles, the imperatives and
the four subjunctives. It is easy to remember that the conditional is a mood
by comparing it to its English counterpart, formed by the auxiliary or
modal verb (a term that refers to mood) would plus the verb. In English, the
modal does not vary its form; that is, it is the same for all subjects. In Span-
ish, however, the conditional is fully inected; that is, it is conjugated, and
so it shows particular endings for all six grammatical persons and num-
bers; for this reason, it is convenient and practical to treat it as a tense.
e conditional is rarely used as a stand-alone form, except in infor-
mal speech, where it is oen used to answer a question. Used in this way, it
does not form grammatically complete sentences in either English or
Spanish. ere is oen an implied if-clause, usually stated in a question
but omitted in the answer:
Los niños irían al parque. e children would go to the park.
Su padre compraría un carro. His father would buy a new car.
Una amiga no te pondría en A friend wouldn’t put you in jail.
la cárcel.
It is easy to imagine the questions that the above phrases might
answer:
Where would the children go . . . if they could?
What would his father buy . . . if he had the money?
Would a friend not put you in jail . . . even if she could?
e rst lesson to learn from the above examples is that while the English
conditional consists of an invariable verb phrase, the Spanish conditional
is a one-word form, fully inected for all persons and numbers. Next,
notice that one consequence of the fact that English employs a two-word
construction is that, in questions, the subject is placed in between the
modal verb would and the verb that completes the conditional. Spanish,
with its one-word conditional, is much simpler in this regard. For many
English-speaking learners of Spanish, these dierences can present con-
ceptual hurdles.
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6
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The conditional 61
e next thing to notice about the conditional in Spanish, which is illustrated in the
preceding examples, is that it is formed by adding one set of personal endings directly to
the innitives of each of the three verb families (-ar, -er, and -ir verbs). Since these endings
are identical to the imperfect indicative endings of -er and -ir verbs, in order to prevent
confusion, it is very important to keep in mind that the conditional endings are added to
the innitive:
Conditional endings: Add to the infinitive
1 ía 1 íamos
1 ías 1 íais
1 ía 1 ían
Notice that, as in many other tenses, the rst- and third-person singular forms are
identical. Observe the following conjugations of hablar, comer, and vivir, the three mod-
els for regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs:
hablaría hablaríamos comería comeríamos viviría viviríamos
hablarías hablaríais comerías comeríais vivirías viviríais
hablaría hablarían comería comerían viviría vivirían
Of course, as learners of Spanish have come to expect, there are irregular verbs. Yet
when studying the conditional, there are two bits of good news. First, there are only a
handful of irregular verbs. Collectively, these irregularities amount to a new stem. e
second bit of good news is that these irregular verbs, shown below with their new stems,
are also irregular in exactly the same way in the future tense (which is also formed by add-
ing endings to the innitive). So, learning the conditional well will pay o twice.
INFINITIVE STEM FOR CONDITIONAL AND FUTURE
decir dir-
hacer har-
poner pondr-
salir saldr-
tener tendr-
valer valdr-
venir vendr-
caber cabr-
haber habr-
poder podr-
querer querr-
saber sabr-
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62 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
In order to remember these irregular stems more eectively, notice that they have
been divided into three groups according to the way in which they may be recog-
nized. First of all, decir and hacer are simply wild—you’ll just have to memorize
them as a pair of oddballs. In the second group, however, in which the nal letter of
the stem is characteristically either an l or an n, the pattern is that the theme vowel of
the innitive (an e or an i) is replaced with a d. e third group, nally, may be called
verbs with a collapsed innitive. ey are also all -er verbs.
Now that we have examined the morphology, or formation, of the conditional, we
may begin to learn how it is used and when. e conditional is used in three situations.
First, the conditional is used to express the consequence of a hypothetical statement; sec-
ondly, it is used as the future of the past in indirect discourse; and thirdly, it is used to
express probability in the past. Fortunately, the rst two ways in which the conditional is
used are identical to the way English uses the conditional. e third situation has no clear
analogue in English.
When the conditional is used to express a hypothesis or contrary-to-fact situation, it
is used correlatively, that is, in tandem with an if-clause. e verb form used in the if-
clause is the imperfect subjunctive. is type of sentence is also encountered in formal
logic, where it is known as a counterfactual proposition. at might sound like a compli-
cated thing, but we use counterfactuals every day. In fact, counterfactuals are the stu
dreams are made of, as we imagine how the world would be if only. . . . Examine the follow-
ing sentences, noting how the conditional expresses the consequence—what would hap-
pen, if the if-clause were to become a reality:
Ella me amaría si las circunstancias le She would love me if her circumstances
permitieran. allowed her.
Tú me visitarías si no fuera por nuestras You would visit me if it weren’t for our
obligaciones familiares. family obligations.
Ellos participarían en el proceso político ey would participate in the political
si no tuvieran que trabajar todo el process if they didn’t have to work
tiempo. all the time.
The imperfect subjunctive
In order to do many of the items in the exercises, this particular form of the subjunc-
tive will now be presented, in case learners have never seen it or, if they have, by way
of review, so that the usage of the conditional that it is used with may be recognized.
Another simple name for the imperfect subjunctive is the simple past subjunctive. It
is a past tense of the subjunctive mood, and since it consists of a one-word form, the
qualifying term simple is used to distinguish it from compound forms—the present
perfect subjunctive and the pluperfect subjunctive.
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The conditional 63
To form the imperfect subjunctive, begin with the third-person plural of the pret-
erite (the ellos, ellas, ustedes form). For all verbs, simply remove -on and replace it
with -a and begin conjugating again, using it as a new yo form, and adding the per-
sonal endings.
You may have learned or seen that there is an alternative form of the imperfect
subjunctive that ends in -se. It is not used in this book, being somewhat more used in
literary settings than in speaking in most regions. In any event, the rules for using
this alternative form are the same, stylistic matters aside.
Generally, the irregular verbs in the preterite cause more problems than the
irregular verbs in the present, because so many verbs have a new stem in the preterite
that can’t be derived by any logical rules. However, once the new stems are known,
the formation of the imperfect subjunctive is uniformly achieved in the following
way (as described above): here we use tener as an example. First, the third-person
plural of the preterite of tener is tuvieron; remove the -on and add -a, and then con-
tinue as shown below:
tuviera tuviéramos
tuvieras tuvierais
tuviera tuvieran
It should come as truly good news that this rule works perfectly for all three
families of verbs, -ar, -er, and -ir, both regular and irregular, so that the imperfect
subjunctive forms of hablar, comer, and vivir are all formed like the imperfect sub-
junctive of tener. If the formation of the imperfect subjunctive is dicult for learners,
it is almost always because they have not learned the preterite. If this is the case for
you, as you do the exercises, refer oen to these paragraphs and Chapter .
e second situation in which the conditional is used is when an indirect statement
is introduced by a verb in a past tense. Within the indirect statement, the conditional
expresses an action that was yet to occur, relative to the past point of reference established
by the main verb, which inevitably is a verb about communicating. In this situation, the
use of the conditional, in its relation to its main past tense verb, is parallel to the relation-
ship between the future and a main verb in the present.
Observe the following sets of sentences. Note rst how the verb in the indirect state-
ment (the que-clause) changes tense, depending on the tense that introduces the indirect
statement. Since the simple future can also be replaced with the periphrastic future, ir 1
a 1 innitive, it is also valuable to notice that the use of the conditional in indirect state-
ments in the past can be replaced with the imperfect of ir 1 a 1 innitive, i.e., was or were
going to. is too is an alternative in English, making this a little more good news for
English-speaking learners of Spanish.
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64 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
Indirect statement in the present
Juan me dice que nos llamará al llegar John tells me he will call us when he gets
a casa. home.
Juan me dice que nos va a llamar al llegar John tells me he is going to call us when
a casa. he gets home.
Indirect statements in the past
Juan me dijo que nos llamaría al llegar John told me he would call us when he
a casa. got home.
Juan me dijo que nos iba a llamar al llegar John told me he was going to call us
a casa. when he got home.
Juan me decía que nos llamaría al llegar John was telling me he would call us
a casa. when he got home.
Juan me decía que nos iba a llamar al John was telling me he was going to call
llegar a casa. us when he got home.
e third situation in which the conditional is used also parallels another peculiar
function of the future tense in Spanish. Just as the future tense is used to express probabil-
ity in the present, in the second of the following sentences, the conditional is used as a
means to express probability in the past. (Notice also that the conditional is not the only
way to show probability in the past, as shown by the nal example sentence below. For the
purposes of the exercises in this chapter, however, use the conditional when dealing with
this situation.)
Probability in the present
Juan estará en la biblioteca ahora. John is probably in the library now.
Probability in the past
Juan estaría en la biblioteca anoche. John was probably in the library last
night.
Es probable que Juan estuviera en la It’s probable that John was in the library
biblioteca anoche. last night.
Finally, English-speaking learners of Spanish must be cautious whenever the English
auxiliary verb would is employed. In English, there are four situations in which the modal
verb would is used. English-speaking learners of Spanish need to be aware of them so that
they can select the proper equivalent in Spanish.
As seen in this chapter, the rst situation in which both English and Spanish employ
the conditional, and in which the English usage of the modal verb would is identical to the
Spanish usage of the conditional is when there is an implied if-clause, which states a
hypothesis. In this situation, the English would is rendered as the conditional in Spanish,
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The conditional 65
to express the consequence of that hypothetical action expressed in the imperfect
subjunctive.
For the second situation in which English uses would, the Spanish equivalent is not
the conditional. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest situations to recognize. Learners
need only reect a moment before speaking or writing. If would is employed as an equiva-
lent of used to 1 innitive, it is used to refer to habitual or repeated past action and is ren-
dered in Spanish by the imperfect indicative, not the conditional:
Cuando éramos niños, íbamos a la playa When we were kids, we would go to the
mucho. beach a lot.
irdly, would is also used in English to express the future of the past in an indirect
statement. In this situation, the conditional is employed in Spanish as a means to express
the future from a point of reference in the past, as seen earlier:
Mi padre me dijo que vendría más tarde. My father told me that he would come
later.
e last use of the English modal would is found in its use as a subjunctive, appearing
in a subordinated clause introduced by a past tense verb to express, for instance, what
someone hoped someone else would do or what someone hoped something would be like.
In this case, Spanish uses the imperfect subjunctive:
Esperaba que Juan viniera a la esta. He was hoping that John would come to
the party.
Necesitabas un programa que funcionara You needed a program that would work
sin problemas. without problems.
e use of the conditional to express probability in the past has no English equivalent
involving the auxiliary verb would, and so this situation rarely causes confusion.
Querer, deber, and poder
Finally, now that we have examined the conditional and the formation of the imperfect
subjunctive, it is time to make some important observations about the social usage of three
important and common helping verbs. When the verbs querer, deber, and poder are fol-
lowed by the innitive, they are being used as helping verbs. e various degrees of polite-
ness involve the use of the simple present indicative, the conditional, or the imperfect
subjunctive, as shown on the next page. e observations we are about to make regarding
degrees of politeness and the use of these three tenses are limited to these three verbs only,
and then only when they are helping verbs, that is, when they are followed by an innitive.
Also, it is important to remember that when these three verbs are followed by an
innitive, despite the choice of tense and mood, there is no change in the fundamental
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66 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
meaning of these verbs. e use of these three tenses in this situation does not impact even
the time of the action or its likeliness. e choice only indicates a degree of politeness.
Grammatically and morphologically, this is a small thing, but socially and culturally, it is
a big deal. e following English translations of the Spanish examples are intended to
indicate the approximate sense or feel of each degree of politeness:
¿Puedes darme la guía telefónica? Can you give me the telephone book?
¿Podrías darme la guía telefónica? Could you give me the telephone book?
¿Pudieras darme la guía telefónica? Would you be so kind as to give me the
telephone book?
In all three sentences, the meaning or message is the same. e only dierence derived
from the choice of present, conditional, or imperfect subjunctive in the auxiliary verb
poder is that the degree of politeness expressed in these examples increases as you go down
the list.
Knowing how poder works should make it relatively easy to intuit what impact the
same choices have when used with querer and deber, even while recognizing that adequate
translations into English oen are elusive and may seem overly polite, pleading, or even
obsequious, which they assuredly are not in Spanish, unless of course the tone of voice is.
Many dictionaries mistakenly translate deber as must. Because of its meaning, deber tends
to be found in statements rather than questions. e degree of politeness soens the sever-
ity or adds diplomacy to the moral obligation this verb expresses:
¿Quieres acompañarme al cine? Do you want to go with me to the movies?
¿Querrías acompañarme al cine? Would you like to go with me to the
movies?
¿Quisieras acompañarme al cine? Would you, please, like to go with me to
the movies?
Debes estudiar más si quieres sacar You should study more if you want to get
buenas notas. good grades.
Deberías estudiar más si quieres sacar You ought to study more if you want to
buenas notas. get good grades.
Debieras estudiar más si quieres sacar You really ought to study more if you
buenas notas. want to get good grades.
Be sure to learn these three verbs well in the present, conditional, and imperfect sub-
junctive. eir potential impact on social and cultural relations cannot be overstated, and
no number of cross-cultural communications classes or sensitivity training seminars can
make up for not being able to use them correctly.
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The conditional 67
6
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1
EJERCICIO
Match each Spanish conditional verb on the left with the corresponding English
phrase on the right.
1. traería a. she would write
2. amaríamos b. they would eat
3. vendría c. I would put
4. escribiría d. he wouldn’t listen
5. empezaría e. we would go
6. saldría f. they would break
7. pondría g. I would have
8. no verían h. you would make
9. gustaría i. she would nd
10. no sabrían j. I would bring
11. romperían k. you would call
12. querríamos l. I would begin
13. encontraría m. we would love
14. harías n. it would please
15. tendría o. they wouldn’t see
16. llamarías p. he would leave
17. comerían q. she would love
18. amaría r. we would want
19. iríamos s. she would come
20. no escucharía t. they wouldn’t know
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68 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
6
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2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper conditional forms of the verbs in parentheses.
1. Si ella me dijera una mentira, yo en seguida que me
miente. (saber)
2. Ayer tú me dijiste que a clase hoy. (asistir)
3. Si Tomás lo viera, lo . (creer)
4. No lo sé, parece que ayer Teresa el almuerzo, pero no la
vi. (traer)
5. Me conocer a sus amigas; se ven divertidas en la foto.
(gustar)
6. Si nos metiéramos de lleno en la materia, mucha
riqueza. (encontrar)
7. Uds. me informaron que cumplir con los requisitos del
contrato. (poder)
8. Si nosotros no estuviéramos enfermos, . (trabajar)
9. A lo mejor mis amigos tiempo para ver la película
anoche. (tener)
10. Me pregunto cuántos hombres en la calle esa noche. Era
muy tarde y estaba muy oscura. (haber)
11. Si ella estuviera aquí conmigo, yo le cómo me siento.
(decir)
12. Ella el grito al cielo si supiera lo que esa mujer me dijo.
(poner)
13. Ellos la casa si los precios no fueran tan bajos ahora.
(vender)
14. Si el perro pudiera ver al gato, de casa como un
relámpago. (salir)
15. ¿Qué tú si no tuvieras que trabajar para vivir? (hacer)
16. médico si su familia diopusiera de fondos para pagar su
educación. (ser)
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The conditional 69
17. Mi padre me dijo que nosotros a la playa si no hiciera
mal tiempo. (ir)
18. Si ellos pudieran y se atrevieran, a un acuerdo. (llegar)
19. ¿Por un beso? No sé qué te por un beso. (dar)
20. Yo la , si fuera factible. Hay amores imposibles, pero
amores son. (querer)
6
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3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Los niños pondrían la mesa si su mamá se lo pidiera.
2. Si no fuera por sus padres, no estaría usted aquí.
3. El profesor le dijo que ella aprendería mucho en su clase.
4. Si Ud. quisiera, podría acompañarme al cine, ¡para ver a ese actor a quien dices
que me parezco!
5. Ese muchacho me dijo que vendría a buscarme a eso de las seis, pero no ha
llegado.
6. ¿Dónde estaría mi mamá cuando su primo la llamó?
7. ¿Qué me diría mi esposa si la llamara “mi cielo”?
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70 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
8. María escribiría poesía anoche porque está enamorada de él.
9. Yo bailaría más si no me doliera la rodilla.
10. Si las suegras se murieran todas, los maridos valdrían más.
11. Nos gustaría enseñar una clase juntos si pudiéramos hallar un tema interesante.
12. Ella le dijo a su hijito que lo bañaría pronto.
13. ¿Te interesaría viajar a París si la línea aérea te diera un boleto gratis?
14. Yo les prometí a los alumnos que tocaría más música en la clase.
15. Si yo tocara música cubana, ¿bailarían los alumnos?
16. ¿Podrías ayudarme a seleccionar las canciones para la clase?
17. Los alumnos deberían asistir a clase todos los días.
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The conditional 71
6
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4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. She would go to the party if she had time.
2. They said they would bring the food.
3. He told me that she would nd the manager’s phone number.
4. They were probably in the bookstore when I called.
5. What would she say to me if she could see me now?
6. How would you say “It’s a beautiful day” in Spanish?
7. If John were taller, we would ask him to play on our team.
8. When her boyfriend came home, she was probably studying.
9. He was probably happy to see her last night.
10. What would you do if you won the lottery?
11. My friend said he would read more if he had time.
12. If their age dierence were not an issue, their situation would be dierent.
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72 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
13. I was probably cooking when you called me.
14. Even if the price of homes were to increase a lot, I would not sell mine.
15. The car was probably moving too fast.
16. If I had a horse, I would name him Sirocco.
17. The doctor told me that he would not operate on my knee.
18. The children were probably playing when it began to rain.
19. If I were French, I would think dierently about life.
20. I would eat more sh if it did not cost so much.
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73
The conditional perfect
What would have been
e conditional perfect performs the same functions as the conditional,
except that, like all the perfect tenses, it shis to the past. If you keep in
mind the dierences in temporal perspective between the present and the
present perfect, you will be able to apply this shi to the other tenses in
relation to their respective perfect ones. us, just as the conditional speaks
of what would be, the conditional perfect speaks of what would have been.
In the same way that the simple conditional oen has an implicit if-clause
in the imperfect subjunctive, the conditional perfect oen has an implied
if-clause in the pluperfect subjunctive.
Taking the same sentences we used to begin our study of the simple
conditional in the last chapter, let’s see how the sentences change when we
shi temporal gears and use the conditional perfect instead. One of the
most important things to notice is that the conditional endings are shied
to the helping verb haber, and that the main verbs, previously conjugated
in the conditional, now assume their past participial forms, as happens
uniformly throughout the entire perfect system:
Los niños habrían ido al e children would have gone
parque. to the park.
Su padre habría comprado un His father would have bought a
carro nuevo. new car.
Una amiga no te habría metido A friend would not have put you
en la cárcel. in jail.
Let’s focus on these specic changes by contrasting the simple condi-
tional forms with those of the conditional perfect:
SIMPLE CONDITIONAL CONDITIONAL PERFECT
irían habrían ido
compraría habría comprado
metería habría metido
e questions which these phrases answer would of course also have
been framed dierently, reecting the shi to the conditional perfect.
Observe how the second set of questions on the next page are framed to
elicit a conditional perfect response. e questions we saw in the previous
chapter were framed in expectation of a simple conditional response:
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7
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74 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
Where would the children go . . . if they could?
What would his father buy . . . if he had the money?
What would a friend not do . . . if she were a friend?
When framed in expectation of a conditional perfect answer, however, these ques-
tions now look like this:
Where would the children have gone . . . if they could have gone anywhere?
What would his father have bought . . . if he had had the money?
What would a friend not have done . . . if she had been a friend?
Now, let’s examine the three ways in which we have seen that the conditional is used,
but now using the conditional perfect. e hypothetical or counterfactual statements are
quite simple. In the contrastive pairs of sentences below, pay close attention to the way that
the simple tenses in both clauses are shied to compound, or perfect tenses, involving the
use of haber and the past participles. Noticing that the same shi occurs in English should
give you condence in using these tenses:
¿Adónde irían los niños si pudieran ir a Where would the children go if they
cualquier parte? could go anywhere?
¿Adónde habrían ido los niños si hubieran Where would the children have gone if
podido ir a cualquier parte? they could have gone anywhere?
¿Qué compraría su padre si tuviera el What would his father buy if he had the
dinero? money?
¿Qué habría comprado su padre si hubiera What would his father have bought if he
tenido el dinero? had had the money?
Una amiga no te metería en la cárcel si A friend would not put you in jail if she
supiera tus secretos. knew your secrets.
Una amiga no te habría metido en la cárcel A friend would not have put you in jail
si hubiera sabido tus secretos. if she had known your secrets.
Since counterfactuals express circumstances that are not the case, the simple tense
versions above speak of what is not the case at the moment of speaking. at is, their time
frame is a sort of hypothetical out-of-time, a stepping outside of current realities. e com-
pound versions express that events did not go as expected. ey could be seen as existing
in a time frame that takes an attitude of “if only such and such had or had not happened.”
e second situation that we observed while examining the conditional in Chapter
was the use of the conditional in indirect statements introduced by past-tense verbs of
communication. Compare the use of the simple tenses with what happens to meaning, or
perspective, when the conditional perfect is used instead. We now have a past situation
similar to that of the use of the simple conditional, but this time it is embedded in the
indirect statement: there is an implied if-clause:
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The conditional perfect 75
Juan me dijo que nos llamaría al llegar John told me he would call us when he
a casa. got home.
Juan me dijo que nos habría llamado al John told me he would have called us
llegar a casa... when he got home . . .
e unsupplied if-clause, if expressed, would necessarily be in the pluperfect (or com-
pound past) subjunctive: ...si no hubiera perdido su teléfono celular.
Learners should be aware that in Latin America the -ara forms of the imperfect sub-
junctive can be used as an equivalent of the conditional, and even the pluperfect
indicative. us, the conditional clauses of the above sentences would look as follows,
with no change in the use of the imperfect subjunctive in the if-clause:
Juan me dijo que nos llamara al llegar John told me he would call (or had
a casa. called) us when he got home.
Juan me dijo que nos hubiera llamado John told me he would have called us
al llegar a casa si no hubiera perdido when he got home if he had not lost
su teléfono celular. his cellphone.
e third situation we saw when examining the conditional was the use of the condi-
tional for expressing probability in the past. When the conditional perfect is used, the
probability of the event expressed is one that might have happened prior to something else,
expressed or implied. What is to be observed is that when the moment in question is more
remote relative to the moment of speaking, the compound conditional is used. As observed
previously, this is not the only way of expressing probability in the past, as the following
pairs of sentences show:
Juan estaría en la biblioteca anoche. John was probably in the library last
night.
Es probable que Juan estuviera en la It’s probable that John was in the library
biblioteca anoche. last night.
Juan habría estado en la biblioteca aquella John had probably been in the library
noche. that night.
Era probable que Juan hubiera estado en It was probable that John had been in
la biblioteca aquella noche. the library that night.
Because of the close and logical relationship between the simple conditional and the
perfect conditional, most of the items in the following set of exercises will be adaptations
of the exercises of the previous chapter. at is, the sentences will merely shi the time of
the action into the past by using the conditional perfect.
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76 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
7
·
1
EJERCICIO
Match each Spanish conditional verb on the left with the corresponding English
phrase on the right.
1. habrían traído a. they would have gone out
2. habríamos amado b. you would not have seen
3. habríamos venido c. we would have broken
4. habría escrito d. you would have wanted
5. habría empezado e. I would have found
6. habrían salido f. we would not have listened
7. habríamos puesto g. we would have had
8. no habrían visto h. she would have loved
9. habría gustado i. he would have written
10. no habrías sabido j. she would have begun
11. habríamos roto k. we would have loved
12. habrías querido l. you would have eaten
13. habría encontrado m. you would have made
14. habrías hecho n. they would have gone
15. habríamos tenido o. they would have brought
16. habrían llamado p. they would have called
17. habría comido q. we would have placed
18. habría amado r. it would have pleased
19. habrían ido s. you would not have found out
20. no habríamos escuchado t. we would have come
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The conditional perfect 77
7
·
2
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper conditional or conditional perfect forms of the
verbs in parentheses.
1. Si ella me hubiera dicho una mentira, yo en seguida que
me mentía. (saber)
2. Tú me habías dicho que a clase la semana pasada si no
hubiera sido por la gripe. (asistir)
3. Si Tomás lo hubiera visto, lo . (creer)
4. No lo sabía, pero parecía que Teresa el almuerzo pronto.
(traer)
5. Me conocer a sus amigas; se veían divertidas en la foto.
(gustar)
6. Si nos hubiéramos metido de lleno en la materia, mucha
riqueza. (encontrar)
7. Uds. me informaron que cumplir con los requisitos del
contrato antes de la fecha límite. (poder)
8. Si nosotros no hubiéramos estado enfermos ese día, .
(trabajar)
9. A lo mejor mis amigos tiempo para ver la película antes
de volver al aeropuerto. (tener)
10. Me pregunté cuántos hombres la escena antes de llegar
la policía. (abandonar)
11. Si ella hubiera estado aquí conmigo, yo le cómo me
sentía. (decir)
12. Ella el grito en el cielo si hubiera sabido lo que esa mujer
me había dicho. (poner)
13. Ellos la casa antes del verano si los precios no hubieran
sido tan bajos. (vender)
14. Si el perro hubiera podido ver al gato, de casa como un
relámpago. (salir)
15. ¿Qué tú ese año si no hubieras tenido que trabajar
tanto? (hacer)
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78 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
16. médico si su familia hubiera dispuesto de fondos para
pagar su educación. (ser)
17. Mi padre me dijo que nosotros a la playa si no hubiera
hecho mal tiempo ese día. (ir)
18. Si ellos hubieran podido, a un acuerdo. (llegar)
19. ¿Por un beso? No sé qué te por un beso esa noche. (dar)
20. Yo la , si hubiera sido factible. Aprendí que hay amores
imposibles, pero amores son y son eternos. (querer)
7
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3
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Los niños habrían puesto la mesa si su mamá se lo hubiera pedido.
2. Si no hubiera sido por sus padres, no habrías nacido, claro.
3. El profesor le dijo que ella habría aprendido mucho en su clase si se hubiera
dedicado a los estudios.
4. Si Ud. hubiera querido, habría podido acompañarme al cine esa noche, ¡para ver
a ese actor a quien dices que me parezco!
5. Ese muchacho me confesó que habría venido a buscarme a eso de las seis, pero
que no pudo porque su coche se descompuso.
6. Nos preguntábamos dónde habría estado mi mamá cuando por n llegó a casa.
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The conditional perfect 79
7. ¿Qué me habría dicho mi esposa si la hubiera llamado “mi cielo” cuando estaba
enojada?
8. María habría escrito poesía ese verano porque estaba enamorada de él.
9. Yo habría bailado más si no me hubiera dolido tanto la rodilla.
10. Si las suegras se hubieran muerto todas, los maridos habrían valido más.
11. Nos habría gustado enseñar una clase juntos ese año si hubiéramos podido
hallar un tema interesante.
12. Ella le dijo a su hijito que lo habría bañado pero no había suciente agua
caliente.
13. ¿Te habría interesado viajar a París el otoño pasado si la línea aérea te hubiera
dado un boleto gratis?
14. Yo les aseguré a los alumnos que habría tocado más música en la clase si no
hubiera sido por la clase de enfrente.
15. Si yo hubiera tocado música cubana, ¿habrían bailado los alumnos?
16. ¿Habrías podido ayudarme a seleccionar las canciones para la clase si
hubiéramos podido tocarlas?
17. Los alumnos habrían asistido a clase todos los días si no hubiera sido por las
muchas distracciones de la ciudad.
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80 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
7
·
4
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. She would have gone to the party if she had had time.
2. They said they would have brought the food, but that they did not have enough
money.
3. He told me that she would have found the manager’s phone number if she had
not lost her purse.
4. They had probably been in the bookstore, because when I called, they
mentioned they had found an interesting novel.
5. What would she have said if she had been able to see me then?
6. How would you have said “It’s a beautiful day” in Spanish?
7. If John had been taller, we would have asked him to play on our team.
8. She had probably been studying when her boyfriend came home, because all
her books were on the table.
9. He had probably been waiting to see her all night.
10. What would you have done if you had won the lottery?
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The conditional perfect 81
11. My friend said he would have read more if he had had the time when he was
young.
12. If the dierence in their ages had not been an issue, their situation would have
been dierent.
13. When you called him, he had probably been cooking because he talked about
dinner a lot.
14. Even if the price of homes had increased a lot, I would not have sold mine.
15. The car had probably been moving too fast.
16. If I had had a horse, I would have named him Sirocco.
17. The doctor told me that he would not have operated on my knee if it had not
hurt so much.
18. The children had probably been playing all morning when it began to rain.
19. If I had been French, I would have thought dierently about life.
20. I would have eaten more sh if I had known it was so healthful.
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82
The sequence of tenses
Observations on the indicative and
the subjunctive
Now that you have gone through all the past tenses, as well as the simple
conditional and the conditional perfect, and contrasted their uses in terms
of point of view, we need to take a close look at what is known as sequence
of tenses. Understanding which tenses can or must be used in subordi-
nated clauses, introduced by main clauses in which the various indicative
tenses are used, will enable you to choose and use the proper indicative or
subjunctive form for each context.
In order to master Spanish, you need to comprehend the temporal
logic of all tenses, including the four tenses of the subjunctive mood. When
dealing with a choice between the indicative and the subjunctive, you’ll
discover that whether to use the subjunctive at all is the rst choice you
have to make, and is a separate issue from the question of tense; once the
choice is made to use the subjunctive, then the choice of which subjunctive
to use has to do with temporal logic. e same temporal logic applies as
well to the choice of indicative tense, when the indicative is required. Once
this logic is clear, you will have the condence to tackle the exercises in
which any tense and mood could be needed.
Whether or not this is your rst exposure to the subject, it is good to
clarify what is meant by sequence of tenses. We’ll begin with an illustration
of the rules for sequence of tenses by comparing four sentences. In order to
foreground the issue of sequence of tenses, we will be examining sentences
in which the subjunctive and indicative moods will be contrasted.
In order to model the temporal logic of the tenses and moods in Span-
ish, we will be using verbs of emotion and verbs that merely report infor-
mation, in various tenses, in a series of main, or independent, clauses to
introduce subordinate clauses. Verbs of these types provide the necessary
exibility with respect to temporal contexts. As you will see, the tense of
the main clause establishes the time frame for the rest of the sentence and
thus, the tense of any verb that follows will have been determined by that
main verb. Whether the subjunctive mood is needed or not will depend on
what type of subordinated clause the main verb introduces. To keep things
simple, we will only use verbs of emotion in the examples involving the
subjunctive, in order to illustrate how one goes about deciding which of
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The sequence of tenses 83
the four tenses of the subjunctive mood will be required in the respective subordinated
clauses. When verbs of reporting or informing are used, some indicative tense will be
needed. By contrasting such sentences, we will be able to reveal the principle of sequence
of tenses, and hopefully you will be able to internalize the logic of this principle.
It is highly advisable to memorize the examples that follow, along with their transla-
tions, so you have a number of dierent models on the tip of your tongue. Use these
examples as models for sentences of your own. ey need to be in your head so you
can learn to express your own thoughts; aer all, we only truly know what we can
remember and use. e good news is that these are the only patterns there are for the
management of the sequence of tenses. In a nutshell, don’t overanalyze!
In both of the following examples, the party could either be being planned or already
be in progress. Either way, the main clause of the rst example contains a verb of emotion
in the present indicative, therefore requiring whatever verb is in the subordinated clause to
be in the present tense, but in the subjunctive mood. e verb in the main clause of the
second example is not a verb that will cause the subjunctive to be necessary. However, what
matters for the purpose of understanding the sequence of tenses here is the fact that the
time frame is the present and that, therefore, the verbs of the subordinated clauses must be
in the present, regardless of mood:
Me alegro de que Juan venga a la esta. I am glad that John is coming to the
party.
Sé que Juan viene a la esta. I know that John is coming to the party.
If the party is denitely in progress, then the present perfect, in either the indicative
or subjunctive mood, is used to express an action that has taken place and whose inuence
is still in eect. us, in the following examples, the party is actually going on; the speaker
either has or has not seen John:
Me alegro de que Juan haya venido a la I am glad that John has come to the
esta. party.
Veo que Juan ha venido a la esta. I see that John has come to the party.
In the rst of the following four examples, the speaker uses the imperfect subjunctive
to express a strong doubt about John’s attendance at the party. ere are two possible sce-
narios. First, if the party is in progress, the speaker views John’s arrival as so highly
unlikely, or contrary to the current reality, that he or she uses the imperfect subjunctive.
In this scenario, the use of the imperfect subjunctive is temporally equal to the present
perfect subjunctive in the rst example above and, in fact, the speaker could have used that
form to express the same doubt. e second scenario is that the party is over and the
speaker expresses his or her current doubts about John’s attendance. e second and third
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84 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
examples below express certainties; therefore, no subjunctives are used. e fourth exam-
ple is a reminder about the use of the conditional as the future of the past in an indirect
statement:
Dudo que Juan viniera a la esta. I doubt that John has come to the party.
I doubt that John came to the party.
Sé que Juan vino a la esta. I know that John came to the party.
Sé que Juan venía a la esta. I know that John was coming to the
party.
Juan me dijo que vendría a la esta. John said he would come to the party.
More commonly, the imperfect subjunctive is used in subordinated clauses intro-
duced by a verb in a past tense in the main or independent clause (either preterite or imper-
fect indicative), just as the present subjunctive is used in clauses subordinated to a main
clause whose verb is in the present indicative. Compare the following two examples:
Dudo que Juan venga... I doubt that John will come . . .
Dudaba que Juan viniera... I doubt that John would come/was
coming . . .
In both cases, John’s arrival is in the future—relative to the time of the utterance.
e pluperfect subjunctive is used for an action that is viewed as prior to some other
action in the past. us, in the following examples, the party is not only over, but in the
rst case, in which the speaker’s past doubt is expressed, John’s arrival is viewed as some-
thing that (logically) would have had to have occurred before the party ended. In other
words, and quite simply—John never showed up. Note that the speaker reports his or her
doubt as a past state of mind, clearly establishing the past time frame:
Dudaba que Juan hubiera venido a la esta. I doubted that John had come to the
party.
Vi que Juan había venido a la esta. I saw that John had come to the party.
e temporal logic needed to manage the sequence of tenses can be seen in other eas-
ily recognized independent clauses where verbs of disbelief or doubt are used in dierent
tenses, in the independent clause, to introduce the subordinate clause. e following com-
parative summary shows the usage of the four subjunctive tenses and how they are related
temporally to the seven indicative tenses and the two conditional ones (simple and com-
pound). You might want to review these tenses as you examine these examples.
e sentences on the le serve as reminders that not all types of verbs in an indepen-
dent clause will necessitate the use of the subjunctive in the subordinate clause. Remem-
ber, it is the verb in the main clause that sets the time frame, regardless of whether the
indicative or subjunctive mood must be used.
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The sequence of tenses 85
Indicative Subjunctive
Creo que ella viene. No creo que ella venga.
I believe she is coming. I don’t believe she is coming (or will
come).
Creo que ella vendrá. No creo que ella venga.
I believe she will come. I don’t believe she is coming (or will
come).
In the previous two examples, the present subjunctive has both present and future force.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creo que ella ha venido. No creo que ella haya venido.
I believe she has come. I don’t believe she has come.
As a comparison of the Spanish and English in the above examples shows, it is best to view
the subjunctive as a form that has no meaning of its own—it’s just a verb form that has to
be used in certain situations, but one that has four tenses that must be used according to
the temporal logic of the verb system. Also note that the present perfect indicative (has
come = ha venido) has its corresponding subjunctive form (has come = haya venido) to be
used when the subjunctive is necessary.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creo que ella habrá venido. No creo que ella haya venido.
I believe she has come. I don’t believe she has come.
Note that in the example on the le, above, the future perfect in Spanish indicates proba-
bility in the present—one of the peculiar uses of the future tenses in Spanish, as we have
seen when examining the conditional and how it is used in the same way as the future, but
for indicating probability in the past. A somewhat longer English translation would insert
the word probably or some other word to express wonder or supposition.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creo que ella vino. No creo que ella viniera.
I believe she came. I don’t believe she came (or has come).
e example on the right, above (the last in which the present tense is used in the indepen-
dent clause), shows how a belief or disbelief can be expressed in the present about a past
event. e Spanish use of the imperfect subjunctive (viniera) in this example contrasts
very slightly with the previous example, in which the present perfect subjunctive (haya
venido) was used. e choice depends on the remoteness of the event. e same reasoning
is used in English when deciding between simple past (came) and present perfect (has
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86 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
come). e only additional factor in Spanish is that each of these English words has both
indicative and subjunctive equivalents in Spanish, depending on the clauses in which they
appear.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creí que ella venía. No creí que ella viniera.
I believed she was coming. I didn’t believe she would come.
In the above examples, the sentence on the le is a good example of the contrast between
preterite (indicative) and imperfect (indicative). e preterite is used to indicate a moment
in the past when the speaker’s belief about something occurred. e action expressed by
the imperfect indicative could express her arrival as being either in progress, with respect
to the moment of speaking, or else still in the future, as is also the case in the English trans-
lation of this example. e example on the right only changes that belief to a disbelief.
What is especially noteworthy is not that the imperfect subjunctive must be used, but
that when the imperfect subjunctive is introduced by a past-tense verb in the independent
clause, the action expressed by the imperfect subjunctive can only refer to an action unfold-
ing or yet to occur—it becomes another future-of-the-past tense, just like the conditional
in indirect statements introduced by a verb in a past tense. However, when introduced by
a present-tense verb, as seen on page , the imperfect subjunctive can only refer to an
action in the past. Whether or not the action occurred or not is irrelevant from a gram-
matical point of view.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creí que ella vendría. No creí que ella viniera.
I believed she would come. I didn’t believe she would come.
e only dierence between the le-hand example above and the le-hand example in the
previous set is the use of the conditional (vendría) instead of the imperfect indicative
(venía). Just as the future tense was used earlier to indicate probability in the present, one
peculiar use of the conditional in Spanish is to indicate probability in the past. When
changing an expression of belief in the past to an expression of disbelief in the past, the
grammatical consequence for the subordinate clause remains the same—the imperfect
subjunctive must be used.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creía que ella vino. No creía que ella viniera.
I believed she came. I didn’t believe she would come.
In the examples above, the imperfect indicative was used instead of the preterite for the
verb in the independent clause. is choice has no impact on the subjunctive used in the
example on the right, where the belief shis to disbelief. e lesson here is that when
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The sequence of tenses 87
the verb in the independent clause is in any past tense, the present and present perfect sub-
junctives simply are not admissible choices in Spanish because they purport to occur in a
time frame that is impossible from the temporal perspective of the main verb. Consider
how illogical it is to command someone to have already done something, and the problems
involved when dealing with sequence of tenses will be obvious immediately.
However, as previous examples have shown, when present-tense verbs are used in the
independent clause, the verb in the subordinate or dependent clause can be in any tense,
depending on logic. As was just observed, while it would be illogical to demand that some-
thing have happened already, it is perfectly possible to wish, in the here-and-now, for
something to happen or to have happened, or to wish it had happened (prior to something
else, please note!), depending on context.
Indicative Subjunctive
Creía que ella había venido. No creía que ella hubiera venido.
I believed she had come. I didn’t believe she had come.
Creía que ella habría venido. No creía que ella hubiera venido.
I believed she had come. I didn’t believe she had come.
e two pairs of examples above are like two previous pairs of examples (Creo que ella
vino/No creo que ella viniera and Creí que ella vendría/No creí que ella viniera). e
dierence is that in these last two pairs of examples, displayed above, the action is shied
further into the past by the use of haber 1 past participle. Also, just as the present perfect
indicative (ha venido) has a corresponding subjunctive form, namely the present perfect
subjunctive (haya venido), the pluperfect indicative (había venido) also has its own corre-
sponding subjunctive form, namely the pluperfect subjunctive (hubiera venido).
Now that we have examined all the past tenses and moods, the following exercises
will test your knowledge of all tenses and moods of the Spanish verb system.
8
·
1
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper tenses and moods of the verbs in parentheses.
1. Vi que los perros no concentrarse para cazar ya que
mucha hambre. (poder/tener)
2. Ellos que tú y Jaime a ver la
película con ellos ayer. (esperar/ir)
3. Mi amigo me que era importante que yo
ese programa pronto. (decir/ver)
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4. Anoche, yo le que urgente que
ella el artículo antes de ir a clase. (decir/ser/leer)
5. ¿ tú que ellos la cuenta en
efectivo ahora? (querer/pagar)
6. Ella la lección para que te la
enseñar mañana. (estudiar/poder)
7. Cuando Juan me ayer que ellos
un libro traducido, yo que ellos
el libro antes de 2000.
(mencionar/publicar/dudar/traducir)
8. obvio que tú
tantos poemas desde 2006. (ser/escribir)
9. Él no una novia que le mentiras.
(querer/decir)
10. El día de su santo, el n de semana pasado, mi amiga nos
que le “Las mañanitas”. (pedir/cantar)
11. Yo que fantástico que tú
para mi padre. (creer/ser/trabajar)
12. El año pasado, no les nada que tú y yo
a nuestros trabajos antes de la
Navidad. (gustar/renunciar)
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The sequence of tenses 89
8
·
2
EJERCICIO
Multiple choice. Select the subordinate clause that would correctly complete
each of the following main clauses, according to the logic of the sequence of
tenses.
1. El ingeniero quería que
a. su jefe les ayudara a encontrar los materiales necesarios.
b. su compañero le dé mejores consejos.
c. sus padres hayan venido a visitarle más.
d. tenga más tiempo libre.
2. Juana vio que su novio
a. le va a comprar ores el día de su santo.
b. la llama todos los días.
c. sepa bailar bien.
d. le había comprado un regalo romántico.
3. Mi familia y yo buscábamos una playa en que
a. pudiéramos alquilar tablas de surf.
b. hace sol.
c. no había mucha gente.
d. no llovía nunca.
4. Tus profesores te han recomendado que tú
a. te hubieras quedado en casa ese n de semana.
b. no comieras tanto.
c. duermas más de noche.
d. compraras un nuevo abrigo.
5. No había ningún político que
a. pague más impuestos que yo.
b. se atreviera a decir que los pobres deberían trabajar sin descanso.
c. pensaba que la clase media tenga que pagar más impuestos.
d. decía que los ricos sean superiores a los demás ciudadanos.
6. Mis amigos llamaron a mi padre antes de que mi madre
a. pueda preparar la cena.
b. haya tenido tiempo para descansar.
c. pudiera ver el noticiero.
d. pueda regresar del trabajo.
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7. Yo iba a ir al cine tan pronto como
a. tú vengas a buscarme en el coche.
b. tú pudieras venir a buscarme en el coche.
c. tú y tus amigos hayan tenido tiempo para ver una película.
d. yo pueda ponerme los zapatos.
8. Sus padres le dijeron a Jaime que
a. le regalarían un coche con tal de que sacara mejores notas en la universidad.
b. encuentre mejor trabajo.
c. no se graduaba de la universidad.
d. no se case con Juana.
9. Yo podré irme a Europa a menos que
a. no tuviera sucientes fondos disponibles.
b. hiciera mal tiempo en París.
c. hace mal tiempo en París.
d. tenga que trabajar durante esa semana.
10. Uds. habrían puesto la mesa si
a. tengan tiempo antes de que empiece el programa en la tele.
b. su mamá se lo hubiera pedido.
c. han visto que no hay cubiertos limpios.
d. hayan visto los cubiertos limpios.
8
·
3
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the proper forms of the verbs in parentheses. If a verb in
parentheses is reexive, don’t forget to use the correct pronoun.
1. Mientras ahora, yo a dormir en
el sofá. (nevar/ir)
2. Después de , mis amigos correr
cinco millas. (nadar/decidir)
3. Generalmente cuando Juan cartas, su esposa
la tele. (escribir/mirar)
4. ¿Qué él que quería que tú
después de ver la película? (decir/hacer)
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The sequence of tenses 91
5. Hasta que se murió de vieja, ella en él todas las noches
aunque que no lo hasta
abrazarlo en el más allá. (pensar/saber/ver)
6. ¿Dónde los testigos cuando tú
del accidente? (estar/saber)
7. Para concluir, obvio ahora que John Lennon
un músico talentoso. (ser/ser)
8. Por mucho que los exploradores hacerlo, nunca
escalar esa montaña el año pasado. (querer/poder)
9. Aunque su madre le que no lo
, mientras Caperucita Roja por el
bosque, ores. (decir/hacer/ir/recoger)
10. Yo lo ayer, si
sucientes ganas de hacerlo. (hacer/tener)
11. Cuando nosotros lo ayer, me iba preguntando dónde
, pero no lo por mucho que lo
. (buscar/estar/encontrar/buscar)
12. Fidel Castro siempre por siete horas cuando
discursos en público. (hablar/dar)
13. Mientras el sol ese día, nosotros
cuenta de que hambre, así que
al Plato de Oro. (ponerse/darse/tener/ir)
14. Tras varios años de noviazgo, Amaranta que no
con Crespi. (decider/casarse)
15. Mientras nosotros en tren, mi hermana
por la ventana al desierto que no tener límites, y yo
Cien años de soledad. (viajar/mirar/parecer/leer)
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16. Recientemente, una persona me que mi amigo
una orca cuando él
por Puget Sound en su yate hace unos días.
(informar/ver/navegar)
17. Juanito, ¿qué te la maestra ayer que
para tu proyecto nal? (sugerir/hacer)
18. Ya que los soldados no si a vivir
o morir, muchos delitos. (saber/ir/cometer)
19. En esos días, ella con salir con Juan, a pesar de que ella
que Juan casado.
(soñar/saber/estar)
20. Yo la billetera en la mochila, porque no
que nadie la fácilmente y me
la . (poner/querer/ver/robar)
21. La mamá de Cristina siempre le que
con muchachos con malas intenciones. (prohibir/salir)
22. Ellos deprimidos aun antes de que sus amigos les
lo que
la noche anterior. (sentirse/revelar/ocurrir)
23. Ellos me que la tienda
temprano, pero después de la hora en que el tráco de las hora pico
normalmente . (sugerir/abrir/disminuir)
24. Al salir el sol esta mañana, el gallo, lo cual nos
. (cantar/despertar)
25. Oye, muchachos, ¿no a María en la reunión, cuando Uds.
de vacaciones la semana pasada? (conocer/regresar)
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The sequence of tenses 93
26. Mientras nosotros de San Francisco a Seattle en tren, y
a las cartas, el conductor nos
que una demora de treinta minutos en la próxima
estación para reabastecer el vagón de cocina. (viajar/jugar/informar/haber)
27. El n de semana pasado, cuando mi hija su gato al
veterinario para que lo , él le que
no nada grave. (llevar/examinar/decir/tener)
28. Yo a invitarla a salir conmigo pero si ella
a acompañarme, que buscar a
otra muchacha para ir al baile. (ir/negarse/tener)
29. Alfredo y yo acabamos de hablar con mi esposa y le
que él y yo a trabajar todo el
sábado que viene para sacar la mala hierba del jardín. (prometer/ir)
30. Aunque las atletas de nuestra universidad de lleno para
ganar este n de semana, las chicas del otro equipo
mejor entrenadas y por eso temo que nosotros a perder
esta vez. (meterse/estar/ir)
31. Las chicas escuchar música latina porque
más bailable. (preferir/ser)
32. ¿ tú que obvio anoche que Juan
celos de Enrique? (creer/ser/sentir)
33. Mi padre dice que a la reunión esta noche, pero que si él
no ir por alguna razón, que tú
por él. (asistir/poder/querer/ir)
34. Dijiste que ellos el pastel, si tú la
ensalada. (hacer/preparar)
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35. Este n de semana, los Caballeros Aztecas explorar el
valle, a menos que demasiado frío. (pensar/hacer)
36. Creo que ayer, cuando a la conferencia, los delegados ya
todo lo que
para tomar su decisión. (venir/oír/necesitar)
37. Dudo que cuando los delegados a la conferencia ayer, ya
todo lo que
para tomar su decisión. (venir/oír/necesitar)
38. Tú y yo a María cuando ella la
chaqueta para dar un paseo por el parque ayer. (ver/ponerse)
39. Cuando tú y mi hermana para ir al almacén esta mañana,
las tarjetas de crédito.
(salir/olvidar)
40. Después de que de llover, yo a
jugar al béisbol por un par de horas. (dejar/ir)
41. Tomás dijo que no lo hasta que él lo
con sus propios ojos. (creer/ver)
42. Una vez que Tomás lo con sus propios ojos, lo
. (ver/creer)
43. Hace poco, los tres arquitectos que
un museo cerca de los edicios gubernamentales. (proponer/construirse)
44. Anoche, los marineros que
un velero misterioso que
hacia el norte a toda vela. (decir/observar/navegar)
45. Esta mañana, cuando Uds. que alguien
la ventana de la tienda, también
evidencia de otro crimen. (ver/romper/descubrir)
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The sequence of tenses 95
46. Cuando Juan y Teresa a las once anoche, los dos
en seguida. (acostarse/dormirse)
47. Esa noche, cuando yo , un anciano
la puerta y las luces de la gran biblioteca secreta. (llegar/
abrir/encender)
48. Cuando nosotros la película mañana, espero que
nosotros algo que antes no .
(ver/aprender/saber)
49. Ahora que la lección, tú
que no fácil, pero es cierto que
la mejor mañana. (leer/ver/ser/entender)
50. Ellos se conocieron y, aunque realmente no lo ,
irresistiblemente. (querer/enamorarse)
8
·
4
EJERCICIO
Multiple choice. Select the clauses that correctly complete the sentences.
1. Yo esperaba en la sala mientras que María
a. se pondría el maquillaje.
b. se ponía el maquillaje.
c. se puso el maquillaje.
d. se había puesto el maquillaje.
2. Ella dijo que si Juan dejara de fumar, ella
a. va a salir con él.
b. iba a salir con él.
c. saldría con él.
d. salía con él.
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3. El noviazgo de mis abuelos
a. duraría un año.
b. duraba un año.
c. durara un año.
d. duró un año.
4. Mi papá había conocido a mi mamá por casi un año cuando él
a. le pidió la mano.
b. le había pedido la mano.
c. le pediría la mano.
d. le pedía la mano.
5. En muchos países hispanos, es normal que cuando una señorita sale con un
muchacho,
a. tiene que salir con chaperón.
b. tenga que salir con chaperón.
c. tendría que salir con chaperón.
d. tuviera que salir con chaperón.
6. Cuando fui a México el año pasado,
a. he ido a una quinceañera.
b. iría a una quinceañera.
c. iba a una quinceañera.
d. fui a una quinceañera.
7. La recepción va a ser en el hotel Hacienda de la Noria, después de que
a. se celebró la boda en la Catedral de San Marcos.
b. se celebrará la boda en la Catedral de San Marcos.
c. se celebraba la boda en la Catedral de San Marcos.
d. se celebre la boda en la Catedral de San Marcos.
8. Hace pocas generaciones, y en algunos lugares hasta hoy, era imprescindible que
una joven
a. tuviera un ajuar, para cuando se casara.
b. tenga un ajuar, para cuando se case.
c. tenía un ajuar, para cuando se casara.
d. tendría un ajuar para poder casarse.
9. Hacía mucho tiempo que Ramón y Luisa se conocían
a. cuando él le pedía la mano.
b. cuando él le pidió la mano.
c. cuando él le pidiera la mano.
d. cuando él le pide la mano.
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The sequence of tenses 97
10. Juan fue a la tienda ayer porque quería comprarle un anillo para su novia pero
a. no podía porque no tenía suciente dinero.
b. no podría porque no tenía suciente dinero.
c. no puede porque no tiene suciente dinero.
d. no pudo porque no tenía suciente dinero.
11. Ella estaba frustrada porque
a. cuando quiso llamar a su novio, ella no tenía conexión.
b. cuando quiere llamar a su novio, ella no tiene conexión.
c. cuando quería llamar a su novio, ella no tenía conexión.
d. cuando llamó a su novio, ella no tenía conexión.
12. María tenía veinte años cuando yo
a. la conocía.
b. la conozca.
c. la conocí.
d. la conociera.
13. Cuando Pedro se mudó de su apartamento, hacía varios años que yo
a. lo conocí.
b. lo conocía.
c. lo conociera.
d. lo conozco.
14. Mateo salió con otra chica y Marta decidió no hablarle más cuando
a. lo supo.
b. lo sabía.
c. lo sabría.
d. lo sepa.
15. Cuando me dijeron que iban a Cancún para su luna de miel, yo
a. exclamo: “¡ya lo sé!”
b. exclamaba: “¡ya lo sabía!”
c. exclamé: “¡ya lo sabía!”
d. exclamé: “¡ya lo supe!”
16. Miguel siempre le compraba ores para su novia porque
a. la quiso mucho.
b. la quiere mucho.
c. la querrá mucho.
d. la quería mucho.
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17. Para festejar su aniversario treinta el mes pasado, Juan y María
a. decidirán ir de vacaciones a Nueva Orleans.
b. decidieron ir de vacaciones a Nueva Orleans.
c. decidirían ir de vacaciones a Nueva Orleans.
d. decidían ir de vacaciones a Nueva Orleans.
18. Después de un noviazgo largo,
a. se casaban un día caluroso de junio.
b. se casarán un día caluroso de junio.
c. se casaron un día caluroso de junio.
d. se casarían un día caluroso de junio.
19. Ya que por n Julio se ha divorciado de Rosa,
a. varias muchachas han querido salir con él.
b. varias muchachas querrán salir con él.
c. varias muchachas querrían salir con él.
d. varias muchachas quieren salir con él.
20. Irene se había casado con Pablo por dinero, porque
a. ninguna otra mujer se hubiera casado con él.
b. ninguna otra mujer se habría casado con él.
c. ninguna otra mujer se casará con él.
d. ninguna otra mujer se casaría con él.
8
·
5
EJERCICIO
Matching. Select the clauses on the right that both logically and grammatically
nish the sentences begun by the clauses on the left.
1. Decidimos mudarnos a. el gerente aceptó mi solicitud.
2. Buscábamos un apartamento b. habría tenido que pagar más.
en un barrio
3. Después de una semana, c. porque la renta subía cada año.
encontramos un lugar que
4. No quisieron aceptar nuestra solicitud d. hemos puesto muchas cámaras.
de arrendamiento
5. A pesar de que yo no tenía buen e. lo rmara.
crédito
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The sequence of tenses 99
6. Ella insistió en que yo f. que no tuviera tanto crimen.
7. Aunque había llenado los papeles g. pudiera llevar todo en un viaje.
y hecho el depósito
8. Yo le pregunté h. nos agradaba.
9. Una de las reglas de mi antigua i. fue preciso hacer una inspección.
vecindad era que
10. Me dijo que si hubiera querido j. no se permitía hacer mucho ruido.
estacionamiento
11. En cuanto a la basura, era k. porque no permitían gatos.
importante que
12. Para la mayor seguridad de l. si la luz se incluía en la renta.
la vecindad
13. Necesitábamos una camioneta que m. no se los habían envuelto bien.
14. El gerente nos reservó una hora en n. hubiera un apagón que duró horas.
la noche para que
15. Cuando abría una caja, vi algunos o. la lavadora estuviera en mi piso.
vasos rotos porque
16. Me molestó que, después de meter p. permitiera gatos, pero no pude.
la comida al frío
17. Lavo mucha ropa, así que me e q. uno supiera reciclar botellas.
gustó qu
18. Quería alquilar un apartamento que r. tendría que mudarme otra vez.
19. Si mi hija quisiera volver a vivir s. usáramos el ascensor.
conmigo
20. Era importante leer el contrato t. depositara un mes de renta.
antes de que
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8
·
6
EJERCICIO
Multiple choice. Select the clauses that correctly complete the sentences.
1. Cuando Cortés llegó a México, no anticipaba que
a. había tanto oro.
b. haya tanto oro.
c. habrá tanto oro.
d. hubiera tanto oro.
2. A las compañías mineras, Chile no les interesaba para nada antes de que
a. se descubrieron grandes venas de cobre y otras materias primas.
b. se descubrían grandes venas de cobre y otras materias primas.
c. se descubrieran grandes venas de cobre y otras materias primas.
d. se hayan descubierto grandes venas de cobre y otras materias primas.
3. Los españoles no podían creer que los yacimientos de plata en Potosí y en Taxco
a. parecían casi inagotables.
b. parecieran casi inagotables.
c. parecerían casi inagotables.
d. parecerán casi inagotables.
4. Venezuela ha sido un país que
a. desarrolle bien su capacidad para la energía hidroeléctrica.
b. desarrollara bien su capacidad para la energía hidroeléctrica.
c. ha desarrollado bien su capacidad para la energía hidroeléctrica.
d. desarrollará bien su capacidad para la energía hidroeléctrica.
5. Debido a sus recursos naturales, América Latina siempre
a. se ha explotado.
b. ha sido explotado.
c. será explotado.
d. es explotado.
6. Cuando los norteamericanos empezaron a explotar a los países
hispanoamericanos,
a. España ya los había saqueado oro y plata.
b. España ya los ha saqueado oro y plata.
c. España ya los habría saqueado oro y plata.
d. España ya los hubiera saqueado oro y plata.
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7. Durante la época de la conquista, Cuba sólo
a. sirvió como una escala en los viajes para tomar provisiones.
b. sirve como una escala en los viajes para tomar provisiones.
c. sirviera como una escala en los viajes para tomar provisiones.
d. servía como una escala en los viajes para tomar provisiones.
8. Potosí era una montaña de plata y allí, por la avaricia y crueldad de los españoles,
a. morían miles de indígenas.
b. murieran miles de indígenas.
c. murieron miles de indígenas.
d. morirían miles de indígenas.
9. Si los españoles no hubieran conquistado las Américas
a. los pueblos indígenas no han sido exterminados.
b. los pueblos indígenas no habrían sido exterminados.
c. los pueblos indígenas no hayan sido exterminados.
d. los pueblos indígenas no habrán sido exterminados.
10. Los conquistadores podían hacer lo que querían, con tal de que
a. pagan el “quinto real”.
b. pagaban el “quinto real”.
c. pagarán el “quinto real”.
d. pagaran el “quinto real”.
11. En el desierto de Atacama, casi no
a. ha llovido nunca.
b. haya llovido nunca.
c. habrá llovido nunca.
d. había llovido nunca.
12. Cuando los españoles entraron en Tenochtitlán, ningún europeo
a. haya visto una ciudad tan maravillosa, ni siquiera Istanbul.
b. había visto una ciudad tan maravillosa, ni siquiera Istanbul.
c. habrá visto una ciudad tan maravillosa, ni siquiera Istanbul.
d. ha visto una ciudad tan maravillosa, ni siquiera Istanbul.
13. Magallanes
a. hacía la primera circunnavegación del planeta.
b. hace la primera circunnavegación del planeta.
c. hizo la primera circunnavegación del planeta.
d. hará la primera circunnavegación del planeta.
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14. Durante la época colonial, los españoles
a. dominaban las Américas con una mano de hierro.
b. dominaron las Américas con una mano de hierro.
c. dominaran las Américas con una mano de hierro.
d. dominarán las Américas con una mano de hierro.
15. Bajo Nixon, los EE.UU. apoyó el golpe de estado por Pinochet en Chile para que
a. las compañías mineras podían seguir extrayendo cobre.
b. las compañías mineras puedan seguir extrayendo cobre.
c. las compañías mineras pudieron seguir extrayendo cobre.
d. las compañías mineras pudieran seguir extrayendo cobre.
16. Cuando los portugueses avistaron la costa de lo que hoy es Brasil, creían que
a. habían descubierto el paraíso terrenal.
b. habrán descubierto el paraíso terrenal.
c. habrían descubierto el paraíso terrenal.
d. han descubierto el paraíso terrenal.
17. Me pregunto qué habría pasado
a. si los españoles no han podido conquistar a los pueblos indígenas.
b. si los españoles no conquistan a los pueblos indígenas.
c. si los españoles no pueden conquistar a los pueblos indígenas.
d. si los españoles no hubieran podido conquistar a los pueblos indígenas.
18. El cultivo de la caña de azúcar fue lo que
a. daría impulso a la demanda por esclavos.
b. da impulso a la demanda por esclavos.
c. dio impulso a la demanda por esclavos.
d. daba impulso a la demanda por esclavos.
19. Les sorprendió a algunos que en los Andes
a. haya muchos volcanes activos y acción sísmica.
b. hubiera muchos volcanes activos y acción sísmica.
c. hubo muchos volcanes activos y acción sísmica.
d. hay muchos volcanes activos y acción sísmica.
20. Si no hubiera sido por las enfermedades que trajeron los europeos, es probable
que
a. la población indígena de las Américas no se hubiera reducido tanto.
b. la población indígena de las Américas no se ha reducido tanto.
c. la población indígena de las Américas no se habría reducido tanto.
d. la población indígena de las Américas no se haya reducido tanto.
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The sequence of tenses 103
8
·
7
EJERCICIO
Select the appropriate verbs from the list below and ll in the blanks with the
proper tense and mood. Some verbs may be used more than once. Some blanks
may require compound tenses.
acordar abordar alistar alquilar compartir dar
decidir encontrarse escuchar gustar haber ir
limpiar llegar ocuparse pescar pilotear poder
salir subir tener volver
Hace varios años, (1) con un amigo a Puerto Peñasco, un puerto pesquero
de Sonora en el Mar de Cortés. Nosotros (2) al mediodía porque (3)
temprano de Phoenix al amanecer. Unos días antes, él y yo (4) en ir a
pescar y en que para que (5) reducir los gastos, (6) a ser necesario
que (7) un cuarto de hotel.
A mi amigo le (8) mucho la música mexicana de los años sesenta, así
que, durante todo el viaje en auto, nosotros (9) la música de varios artistas
– un sin n de selecciones que él (10) en casetes.
Bueno, al llegar en Puerto Peñasco, (11) a nuestro cuarto compartido
en un hotel que (12) cerca del malecón. Pronto después, (13) ir a
comer en un restaurante junto al rompeolas.
Al día siguiente, en uno de los muchos muelles, los dos (14) una
lancha de bra de vidrio con dos motores fueraborda y con una cobertura de lona. La
(15) Miguel, un pescador profesional con mucha experiencia. Él nos (16)
cañas de pescar que él (17) antes de que mi amigo y yo (18) .
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Durante la excursión, él (19) de navegar. Además, siempre y cuando (20)
algo, él (21) a poner cebo en los anzuelos y luego (22) el pescado
para que mi amigo y yo luego (23) llevarlo de regreso a Phoenix.
8
·
8
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in parentheses.
1. Cuando los estudiantes anoche, nosotros ya comido.
(llegar/haber)
2. Recuerdo que a mi padre, siempre le preparar una olla grande de chili.
(gustar)
3. Recuerdo la tarde cuando mi madre me a hacer un pastel de queso.
(enseñar)
4. Hace rato, después de untar el salmón con crema, yo lo en el horno.
(poner)
5. Cuando ellos niños, les hornear galletas. (ser/encantar)
6. Ayer, mi novia en la cocina mientras que yo en el jardín.
(estar/trabajar)
7. Ayer, si ellos me lo pedido, yo les preparado un postre con
helado. (haber/haber)
8. Mi hija la mesa ese día sin que yo se lo . (poner/pedir)
9. las ocho de la noche cuando yo el pollo del horno anoche.
(ser/sacar)
10. No recuerdo bien ahora, pero las seis de la tarde cuando ella
me . (ser/llamar)
11. Cuando yo a la cocina a buscarlos, no tenedores ni cuchillos
limpios. (ir/haber)
12. Ella siempre una porción más, en caso de que otro invitado.
(preparar/venir)
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The sequence of tenses 105
13. El jefe les a los meseros que manteles limpios en las mesas.
(decir/poner)
14. A ellas no le nada que yo le que los platos.
(gustar/decir/lavar)
15. Ella a las tres para la tienda donde zanahorias y repollo.
(salir/comprar)
16. Si tú a preparar empanadas, que comprar más harina y
mantequilla. (ir/tener)
17. La maestra que ningún niño comido el pastel de fresas.
(observar/haber)
18. Le dije que yo no qué hecho sin su ayuda anoche.
(saber/haber)
19. Él les el método de cortar los vegetales para que ellas lo
solas. (mostrar/hacer)
20. Anoche, se la carne porque Vicente la temperatura mucho.
(quemar/subir)
8
·
9
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in parentheses.
1. Yo al banco ayer y cien pesos. (ir/sacar)
2. Ayer, la cajera un cheque de cajero y yo lo al otro banco.
(imprimir/llevar)
3. Cuando yo mi clave para pagar mi cuenta ayer, el sitio no la .
(entrar/reconocer)
4. Yo que llevar mis zapatos al zapatero ayer para que los
pronto. (tener/arreglar)
5. El dueño de la tintorería me ayer que ellos no quitar la
mancha. (decir/poder)
6. Yo pagar la renta anoche usando la aplicación del banco, pero
no . (querer/poder)
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7. Yo a María anoche, mientras todos en la esta. (conocer/
bailar)
8. Ayer, mi amigo que ella le robado la identidad. (saber/haber)
9. Ayer, el mecánico me un correo porque que inspeccionar el
auto. (mandar/tener)
10. Ellas temprano ayer para hacer los mandados antes de que .
(salir/llover)
11. Anoche, él me que el dinero cuando . (asegurar/
depositar/regresar)
12. Yo haciendo cola en el banco ayer cuando alguien para
robarnos. (estar/entrar)
13. Ayer, él hablar con su contador para ver si reducir sus gastos.
(decidir/poder)
14. Él le en exceso ayer y ella en que le .
(cobrar/insistir/reembolsar)
15. Ese año, él no devoluciones a menos que los clientes el
recibo. (dar/tener)
16. Ella un libro en línea anoche para que no que ir a la
biblioteca. (pedir/tener)
17. El año pasado, nosotros un programa de contabilidad que
sencillo. (buscar/ser)
18. Ella ayer y miedo de no poder pagar su préstamo estudiantil.
(graduarse/tener)
19. Ayer, Miguel su chequera en caso de que no su tarjeta.
(llevar/aceptarse)
20. Anoche, la dueña del apartamento me que le un favor.
(pedir/hacer)
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8
·
10
EJERCICIO
Select the appropriate verbs from the list below and ll in the blanks with the
proper tense and mood. Some verbs may be used more than once. Some blanks
may require compound tenses.
advertir comparar deber decidir decir empezar
estar haber hacer incluir informar llevar
ofrecer parecer pasar planear prometer ser
sospechar tener
El verano pasado, cuando Jorge y Marta (1) su aniversario veinticinco, ellos
(2) muchas ideas, pero después de pensar por varios días, la idea que más
les (3) la mejor manera para festejarlo (4) hacer un viaje por el
Caribe en crucero. Lo primero que (5) Marta (6) llamar a varias
agencias de viaje. Después de obtener mucha información, los dos (7) los
precios y lo que (8) cada agencia. Algunas (9) escalas en muchos
puertos, con mucho tiempo para ir de compras o hacer una excursión en tierra.
Algunas sólo (10) muchos días navegando en alta mar, pero con muchas
actividades, buenísima comida y muchos otros lujos a bordo.
Cuando por n (11) , optaron por un viaje en crucero que los (12)
a San Juan, Puerto Rico, donde ellos (13) dos días en Viejo San Juan, antes
de volver a bordo y continuar el viaje a otras islas del Caribe, como Guadalupe, St.
Croix, Barbados, Curaçao y Martinique. El agente de la agencia les (14) que
el viaje (15) en Miami. Luego, el mismo agente les (16) que ellos
(17) pagar dentro de cinco días para que no (18) que pagar más,
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ya que (19) una oferta muy especial. Jorge y Marta (20) que no
(21) cierto, pero también (22) seguros de que (23)
tomado una decisión muy buena.
8
·
11
EJERCICIO
Matching. Select the clauses on the right that both logically and grammatically
nish the sentences begun by the clauses on the left.
1. Yo salí de casa sin paraguas a. era de lana natural.
antes de que
2. Querías un abrigo que b. no se había puesto un tuxedo.
3. Su madre le tejió un suéter que c. me ponía una bufanda.
4. Juan llegó a tiempo, pero no le d. de haber tenido números romanos.
dejaron entrar porque
5. Los niños ensuciaron la alfombra e. sólo costaban cincuenta dólares.
porque
6. Juana se vistió para ir la esta, pero f. se maquillaba.
7. Cuando hacía frío, para proteger g. vestir los perros como humanos.
el cuello, yo siempre
8. Su madre les dijo que, antes de h. en casa no le gustó nada.
salir a la calle,
9. No le gustó que la falda que i. combinaran bien con el color.
había comprado
10. Yo me ponía la corbata mientras j. no se viera bien con la blusa.
que mi esposa
11. Me regaló un sombrero de estilo k. empezara de llover.
fedora que
12. A las niñas les gustaba usar ropa l. entraron sin quitarse los zapatos.
de muñecas para
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The sequence of tenses 109
13. Se veía bien en el espejo de la m. te protegiera contra el frío.
tienda, pero
14. Lo último que hacía mi mamá n. se le olvidó ponerse los aretes.
después de vestirse
15. Mi hermano me habría comprado o. causes una impresión profesional.
ese reloj
16. Él prefería las mancuernas que p. había sido de mi abuelo.
17. Mi novia buscaba accesorios para q. era ponerse perfume.
la blusa que
18. La actriz no quería un collar que le r. se pusieran los zapatos.
19. Una chica compró sombra para s. hiciera parecerse a una prostituta.
los ojos que
20. Ponte una corbata para que t. le daba un aspecto vampiresco.
8
·
12
EJERCICIO
Select the appropriate verbs from the list below and ll in the blanks with the
proper tense and mood. Some verbs may be used more than once. Some blanks
may require compound tenses.
amenazar chocar esperar frenar haber hacer
importar ir lograr llegar manejar poder
saber sentirse ser ver
Esta mañana, cuando yo (1) al trabajo durante las horas pico, (2)
un choque en el puente, en el carril de salida en que yo (3) a doblar a la
derecha en la rampa de salida. De repente, (4) que (5) dos carros
parados enfrente de mí, con las luces intermitentes prendidas. Yo (6)
rápidamente para que no (7) con el carro de enfrente. Yo (8)
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frustrado en ese momento porque (9) tanta congestión de tráco que no
(10) posible salir del carril fácilmente, para luego pasar unos metros en el
carril a mi izquierda para ir unos metros enfrente del primer carro, donde entonces
(11) suciente espacio para doblar en la rampa para seguir al trabajo por las
calles del barrio.
Después de varios minutos sin saber qué hacer, (12) un policia en
motocicleta, pero no (13) nada para resolver el embotellamiento detrás de
mí y en el carril a mi izquierda, el cual (14) con llegar a ser cada vez más
grande.
Por n, (15) meterme enfrente de un carro en el carril a mi izquierda y
(16) pasar alrededor de los dos carros parados para entrar en la rampa de
salida.
Puesto que yo (17) llegado un poco tarde al trabajo, (18) que
(19) a ser necesario darme prisa, a menos que no me (20) no
terminar los proyectos que me (21) por las próximas ocho horas.
8
·1
3
EJERCICIO
Multiple choice. Select the clauses that correctly complete the sentences.
1. Me contrataron antes de que
a. habrá una crisis presupuestaria.
b. hubiera una crisis presupuestaria.
c. había una crisis presupuestaria.
d. hay una crisis presupuestaria.
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2. Tuvieron que comprar más grapadoras porque
a. no funcionaban las que tenían.
b. no funcionaron las que tenían.
c. no funcionan las que tienen.
d. no funcionarán las que tendrán.
3. Los empleados se quejaban de que
a. la fotocopiadora se descompone todo el tiempo.
b. la fotocopiadora se descomponía todo el tiempo.
c. la fotocopiadora se descompondría todo el tiempo.
d. la fotocopiadora se descompusiera todo el tiempo.
4. Despidieron al Provoste después de que
a. causa un escándalo por su maltrato de un profesor.
b. causaba un escándalo por su maltrato de un profesor.
c. causó un escándalo por su maltrato de un profesor.
d. cause un escándalo por su maltrato de un profesor.
5. Todos esperábamos que la empresa
a. nos ofreciera major seguro medico.
b. nos ofrece major seguro medico.
c. nos ofreció major seguro medico.
d. nos ofrezca major seguro medico.
6. Yo sospechaba que el alto índice de la rotación de personal
a. se debía a la corrupción de la administración.
b. se deba a la corrupción de la administración.
c. se debe a la corrupción de la administración.
d. se debiera a la corrupción de la administración.
7. A todos los ocinistas les molestaba que
a. el jefe no les dé un aumento de sueldo, ya que seguía subiendo el costo de la
vida.
b. el jefe no les daba un aumento de sueldo, ya que seguía subiendo el costo de
la vida.
c. el jefe no les diera un aumento de sueldo, ya que seguía subiendo el costo de
la vida.
d. el jefe no les dio un aumento de sueldo, ya que seguía subiendo el costo de la
vida.
8. Yo no tenía ningún colega a quien
a. le gustaba el nuevo plan de seguro médico.
b. le gustara el nuevo plan de seguro médico.
c. le gustó el nuevo plan de seguro médico.
d. le guste el nuevo plan de seguro médico.
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9. Mi compañero en el trabajo se alegró de que
a. los dos habíamos recibido un ascenso y un aumento.
b. los dos hayamos recibido un ascenso y un aumento.
c. los dos hubiéramos recibido un ascenso y un aumento.
d. los dos hemos recibido un ascenso y un aumento.
10. Necesitábamos una fotocopiadora que también
a. pudiera escanear documentos y mandarlos por fax.
b. pueda escanear documentos y mandarlos por fax.
c. puede escanear documentos y mandarlos por fax.
d. podía escanear documentos y mandarlos por fax.
11. ¡Imagínese! El jefe nos dijo que no nos hacía falta personal que
a. es bilingüe.
b. era bilingüe.
c. sea bilingüe.
d. fuera bilingüe.
12. Si la empresa invirtiera más en sus empleados,
a. hay más lealtad y camaradería.
b. había más lealtad y camaradería.
c. haya más lealtad y camaradería.
d. habría más lealtad y camaradería.
13. El plan estratégico era bueno, pero se fue a pique después de que
a. el jefe se jubiló.
b. el jefe se jubila.
c. el jefe se jubilaba.
d. el jefe se jubile.
14. No queríamos colaborar a menos que
a. se reconozca la contribución de cada miembro del equipo.
b. se reconoce la contribución de cada miembro del equipo.
c. se reconociera la contribución de cada miembro del equipo.
d. se reconocía la contribución de cada miembro del equipo.
15. Yo quería una computadora que
a. no tenía tantos problemas.
b. no tiene tantos problemas.
c. no tuviera tantos problemas.
d. no tenga tantos problemas.
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16. A mi hermana, no le agradaba su trabajo de ocinista porque
a. no le dejara tiempo para desarrollar sus talentos.
b. no le deje tiempo para desarrollar sus talentos.
c. no le deja tiempo para desarrollar sus talentos.
d. no le dejaba tiempo para desarrollar sus talentos.
17. Mientras mis colegas se reunían para discutir tonterías,
a. yo salgo para tomar una taza de café cubano.
b. yo salía para tomar una taza de café cubano.
c. yo salí para tomar una taza de café cubano.
d. yo saliera para tomar una taza de café cubano.
18. Después de un día largo en el trabajo ayer, yo
a. volvía a casa y tomé un mojito.
b. volví a casa y tomé un mojito.
c. volveré a casa y tomé un mojito.
d. volviera a casa y tomé un mojito.
19. Cuando subieron los costos de producción, los dueños
a. anulan el plan para aumentar los sueldos.
b. anulaban el plan para aumentar los sueldos.
c. anularan el plan para aumentar los sueldos.
d. anularon el plan para aumentar los sueldos.
20. Era lamentable que, a pesar de que el costo de la vida subía,
a. sólo subían los sueldos de los jefes.
b. sólo suben los sueldos de los jefes.
c. sólo subieran los sueldos de los jefes.
d. sólo subieron los sueldos de los jefes.
8
·
14
EJERCICIO
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in parentheses.
1. El año pasado, ellos comprarle un perro antes de que seis
años. (querer/cumplir)
2. Cuando yo al zoológico, yo esperaba que una exhibición de
colibríes. (ir/tener)
3. Anoche, la niña con el perro mientras que su mamá la
comida. (jugar/preparar)
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114 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
4. La semana pasada, yo una tienda que papagayos.
(buscar/vender)
5. Cuando Juan adolescente, le estudiar los peces tropicales.
(ser/gustar)
6. Cuando ella buscaba un perro, sólo uno que aprender trucos.
(querer/poder)
7. De niño, Juan las clases que excursiones a la playa o al
bosque (preferir/hacer)
8. Cuando estudiaba anatomía, ella que que hacer disecciones.
(saber/tener)
9. Anoche, mi mamá no que nuestro perro con las patas sucias.
(permitir/entrar)
10. Cuando yo tenía seis años, me que un loro repetir todo.
(sorprender/poder)
11. Los egipcios los gatos como si dioses. (adorar/ser)
12. una tragedia que muchos animales desaparecido en el
último siglo. (ser/haber)
13. Si no sido por la ciencia, ellos no sabido del cambio
climático. (haber/haber)
14. Cuando él ayer , no creer cuántos peces en el mar.
(bucear/poder/haber)
15. En 1850, nadie que un día a ser importante conservar agua.
(imaginarse/llegar)
16. En los 1960, mucha contaminación del aire que
enfermedades. (haber/causar)
17. Si el nivel del mar mucho, nosotros muchas más tormentas
violentas (subir/ver)
18. En los 1950, mucha gente en granjas y su propia comida.
(vivir/cultivar)
19. Hace un momento, el niño miedo de que el gato le la cara.
(tener/arañar)
20. A las tres, cuando alarma, el perro . (sonar/asustarse)
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The sequence of tenses 115
8
·
15
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from Spanish to English.
1. Carlos Gardel, el famosísimo cantante de tangos, murió en un choque de avión
en Medellín, Colombia, en 1935.
2. Tengo un buen amigo que asistió a un concierto de Silvio Rodríguez en La
Habana hace unos años.
3. La otra noche, fui a un evento para recaudar fondos para una organización sin
nes de lucro, dedicada a la salud pública global.
4. Apenas acabado el Festival de San Marcos en Aguascalientes cuando se oía
rumores de parrandas que habían durado tres semanas sin descanso.
5. Después de que Marta y Tomás habían visto el Museo de la Muerte, se dieron cuenta
de cómo en México, las ideas sobre la muerte eran muy distintas de la suyas.
6. Si no hubiera sido por la Revolución Cubana, no habría cuidado de salud gratis
en ese país.
7. Enrique habría ido a ver las representaciones teatrales en El Chamizal si no
hubiera sido por falta de recursos.
8. Catarina se jactaba de poder entender la ópera La Flauta Mágica, pero yo sabía
que no poseía ni los conocimientos más mínimos para discutirla.
9. El Papa Juan Pablo II coronó y bendijo la imagen de la “Patrona de Cuba”
cuando estuvo en Santiago de Cuba en 1998.
10. El movimiento musical de La Nueva Trova, iniciado a nales de los sesenta en
Cuba, ha ganado muchos seguidores a lo largo y ancho del hemisferio.
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116 practice makes perfect Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close
8
·
16
EJERCICIO
Translate the following sentences from English to Spanish.
1. There were a lot of amusement parks built in southern California in the twentieth
century.
2. Before Alexandra had seen the exhibits at the National Museum of Anthropology
and Art, she had no idea of how great a civilization the Aztec Empire had been.
3. When the archeologists had unearthed the bones of the mammoth, they also
found human artifacts, such as, for example, arrowheads.
4. Our tour guide told us not to touch the exhibit.
5. When I was a little boy, I loved learning about dinosaurs.
6. If we had internet access right now, we could do a virtual tour of the museum.
7. Until Jane was nearly thirty, she had never been to a national park.
8. While we were traveling through the wildlife preserve, I took a picture of a
Queztal bird.
9. We couldn’t see that bas relief because it was being restored after an act of
vandalism.
10. The forensic archeologists used plaster and clay to reconstruct the face of a
Neanderthal.
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Answer key 117
Answer key
Keep in mind when checking your work in the translation exercises that as long as your solutions mean the
same thing as the sentences given in the key, you are doing ne. It is inevitable that translations may vary,
since meaning is more important than the exact words. When any doubt remains, focus on your rendition of
the verbs.
1 The imperfect: Description and background
1·1 1. i
2. n
3. p
4. l
5. k
6. i
7. j
8. p
9. j
10. o
11. h
12. k
13. n
14. g
15. h
16. f
17. e
18. d
19. c
20. b
21. e
22. a
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118 Answer key
23. c
24. b
25. c
1·2 1. cantaba
2. comíamos
3. dormía, leía Note that the subjects of the two verbs are dierent but that the rst- and third-
person singular endings are identical in form in the imperfect.
4. trabajaba
5. era
6. estudiaba
7. escribía
8. visitaba
9. iban
10. observaban
11. sent ía
12. podía, agradaba Here, él is the subject of poder; la idea is the subject of agradar.
13. conocía, salía Here, yo is the subject of both verbs.
14. veía
15. sabías
16. abría, esperaba In this case, both subjects are third-person singular, but they represent dierent
people.
17. oías, mirabas In this sentence, the subject of both verbs is tú.
18. había
19. pen saba
20. quería
1·3 1. e children did not want to go home because they were having a lot of fun playing football
(soccer).
2. e horses were galloping (galloped) over the pampas for several hours in search of water. In
English, the use of the single verb “galloped” is still understood as an ongoing action, but if one
were translating in the other direction, this aspect would have to be reected by using the
imperfect, not the preterite. is observation applies to the other optional answers indicated in
the key to this exercise.
3. How did you feel (How were you feeling) when your daughter was going to get married?
4. While I was writing (wrote) these exercises, I was listening to Latin music.
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Answer key 119
5. I used to (would) surf for six hours every aernoon when I lived in Hawaii.
6. In order to become an expert pianist, she used to (would) practice every day.
7. My wife used to prepare (prepared, kept on preparing) many traditional dishes while we
worked (were working) in the yard.
8. e work was very hard and we would drink a lot of water all day.
9. Although they used to catch him every time he crossed the border, he would return with the
same determination.
10. Sometimes, that boy would beat me when we played chess./at boy sometimes beat me at
the chess matches we used to play.
11. at couple used to dance all night, but now they are an old couple in love.
12. Little by little, we moved along, penetrating deeper into an unknown region of the Amazon
jungle.
13. e moon was rising over an aquatic horizon to my right while I, at 21° N., contemplated the
Big Dipper.
14. When I was a little boy, I had the bad habit of putting too much salt on my food.
15. In the Stone Age, there were no cars or airplanes.
1·4 1. Mientras viajaban por el desierto, veían los muchos tipos de cactus.
2. Eran alrededor de las dos de la mañana y leían. Time of day is always expressed by the use of
ser in the imperfect.
3. ¿Comías solamente legumbres cuando vivías en la India?
4. Sus amigos creían que ella podía bailar bien.
5. Íbamos al cine casi todas las noches cuando vivíamos allí.
6. Mientras volábamos, ninguna de las asistentes de vuelo podía descansar.
7. Él preparaba la cena y ella mezclaba la ensalada.
8. Siempre cuando ellos venían a nuestra casa, jugábamos a los naipes hasta la medianoche.
9. Antes no había crimen en esta ciudad.
10. Cuando ellos tenían catorce o quince años, dormían en la playa.
11. A lo lejos, yo podía oír el tren que iba para Chicago.
12. Él leía pero ellos escribían.
13. Él era famoso. Grammatically, it would make no dierence if one used the preterite here (i.e.,
Él fue famoso.); aside from the fact that this is an exercise in the imperfect, however, it is worth
observing that the imperfect invites elaboration while the preterite closes the subject.
14. Había cinco personas en el restaurante anoche a las once.
15. ¿Querían ellos acompañarte?
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120 Answer key
2 The preterite: Narration, or what happened?
2·1 1. v
2. u
3. u
4. s
5. u
6. t
7. p
8. q
9. r
10. m
11. l
12. n
13. o
14. k
15. i
16. h
17. l
18. j
19. e
20. g
21. f
22. d
23. b
24. a
25. c
2·2 1. dijiste
2. conocí
3. tuvo
4. supo Remember that saber in the preterite means to nd out something, because the preterite
refers to a specic action at a given time in the past.
5. pagué
6. leyó
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Answer key 121
7. quiso Remember that querer in the preterite means to try or, if negative, to refuse, because the
preterite refers to a specic action at a given time in the past.
8. diste
9. comimos
10. viste
11. pudo Remember that poder in the preterite means to succeed or, if negative, to fail to do
something, because the preterite refers to a specic action at a given time in the past.
12. fue
13. comencé
14. tradujeron
15. pudo
16. trajimos
17. c an t ó
18. pusiste
19. qu i s o, qu i so
20. fuiste
21. e stuv ie ron
22. vino
23. busqué
24. vivieron
25. hablaron
2·3 1. e milk spoiled aer so many days in the refrigerator.
2. e troops surrendered their weapons aer losing the battle.
3. e tropical sh died from copper poisoning in the tank.
4. I refused to study chemistry in school.
5. His (or Her) parents insisted on going to see the Christmas play with the neighbors.
6. You accompanied her back to her house, didn’t you?
7. e mother defended her son.
8. ey ordered cake from the waiter.
9. My friends decided to open a bank account in Switzerland.
10. You looked for the dog for how many hours last night?
11. A lightning bolt struck it, which caused a re that consumed the entire building.
12. He fell asleep in class.
13. To whom did you give the earrings, Maria or Christina?
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122 Answer key
14. ey put him in jail for embezzlement.
15. I started to sing and my friends covered their ears.
16. We had an exam in geometry class this morning.
17. e little girl fell from the swing just a minute ago.
18. I met that actor in 1990.
19. ey drove to San Diego, taking six-hour shis for three days straight.
20. Who brought me this hat?
2·4 1. Fuimos a Vegas el mes pasado.
2. Ella y Teresa tradujeron este artículo.
3. Supe que ella es honesta cuando me dijo la verdad sobre su hermano.
4. ¿Quisiste abrir la puerta?
5. Él y yo regresamos (or volvimos) a casa muy tarde anoche.
6. Yo los busqué por una hora.
7. Ella no pudo arrancar el carro.
8. ¿Fueron tú y Juan a la cafetería esta mañana? Or Fuisteis, in Spain, if using the familiar plural.
9. Ella conoció a su esposo actual el pasado diciembre en la esta de Juanita.
10. Ellos rompieron la ventana.
11. La mesera nos sirvió la sangría y las tapas.
12. No pudimos encontrar (or hallar) la maleta.
13. Le pagué al taxista y subí (or fui) a mi cuarto de hotel.
14. Ellos trataron de (or quisieron) encontrarnos.
15. Empezó a llover tan pronto como empezó (or comenzó) el partido.
16. Ella y yo lo conocimos en el partido de fútbol.
17. No quisimos comprar el carro.
18. Ellos intentaron (or quisieron) escalar la montaña.
19. Él vio la película tres veces.
20. Ellos subieron las gradas de la catedral.
3 The imperfect and the preterite together:
Narrating and describing in the past
3·1 1. llovía Mientras always requires the imperfect since it means “while” or “meanwhile.”
2. corrió At the time this sentence is spoken, the ve-mile run is over and the speaker is not
elaborating about anything that happened during the run.
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Answer key 123
3. escribía e speaker’s and Juan’s actions are being reported as actions that were going on at the
same time.
4. hiciste e question refers to what someone did at a specic moment, aer another action
ended in the past.
5. esperaba Her waiting is going on at the same time as everyone else’s doubt.
6. supiste ere is only one rst time for everything, hence the preterite of saber must be used
when referring to coming to know something in the past.
7. fue e preterite of ser is used because the matter is being brought to a conclusion, hence it is
summarizing or ending the discusssion.
8. pudo e negative of poder in the preterite means to fail, or not to succeed.
9. iba Little Red Riding Hood was picking owers while she was going through the woods.
10. podía e speaker’s capacity to do something is a given, although he or she did not follow
through with action; hence the use of the imperfect is descriptive, not narrative.
11. es taba Both action and circumstance are contemporaneous.
12. habló Since Fidel spoke for seven hours, there is a stated end to the speech, hence the preterite is
required.
13. fuimos e action of going refers to a specic instance.
14. decidió A moment of decision in the past is expressed by the preterite.
15. miraban Like mientras, durante also always requires the imperfect when used in the past.
16. vieron e preterite is needed when reporting something that happened suddenly.
17. dijo e teacher said something at a specic moment about what the little boy did last week.
18. eran e imperfect is used because the speaker is describing past circumstances.
19. qu is o e preterite of querer shows an attempt to do something at a specic time in the past.
20. puso Mary put the book down at a specic moment. e action is over and done.
21. prohibían e use of siempre referring to the past always requires the imperfect.
22. me sentía e reporting of feelings, moods, or attitudes in the past is generally descriptive.
When the preterite is used with such verbs, it shows a change.
23. abrió e action of opening is reported as nished.
24. despertamos/despertó e subjects’ waking up, or being woken up, is reported as over, not as
a process.
25. conociste One can only meet someone for the rst time once, hence the preterite of conocer
is used.
3·2 1. leía, mirabas Contemporaneous past actions.
2. examinó, concluyó Sequential, completed past actions.
3. invité, quiso Sequential, completed past actions.
4. trabajó, descansó Sequential, completed past actions.
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124 Answer key
5. intentaron, lograron Sequential, completed past actions.
6. cantaban, bailaban Contemporaneous past actions.
7. Fue (or Era), estaba e use of the preterite denotes an impression that was made at the
moment while the imperfect denotes that the impression was ongoing.
8. querían, pudieron e verb querer is used to express a mental state in the past, but poder is
used in the preterite showing that the desire was thwarted.
9. hacía, preparabas Contemporaneous past actions.
10. quiso, pudo Sequential, completed past actions: an attempt was made but failed.
11. es cuchaba , apu ntaba Contemporaneous past actions.
12. compraban, llevaban Habitual past actions.
13. viste, corrías Running is the circumstance in which the person saw Mary.
14. iba, veía Contemporaneous past actions: the speaker’s sister was going to school and it was
foggy, so the park could not be seen.
15. llovió, jugó Sequential, completed past actions.
16. creía, vio omas’s disbelief was a mental state until something happened: he saw with his
own eyes.
17. caminaban, recogían Contemporaneous past actions.
18. construyeron, vendieron Sequential, completed past actions.
19. deseaba, podía Contemporaneous past actions, both showing circumstances, one mental (the
young woman’s desire to go to the party), one external (her parents’ stating that she was unable
to go).
20. navegó, llegó Sequential past actions.
21. me desperté, me levanté Sequential past actions.
22. abrió, encendió Sequential past actions.
23. leímos, supimos Sequential past actions.
24. cerraste, apagaste Sequential past actions.
25. Subió, empezó Sequential past actions.
26. vio, se enamoró Sequential past actions.
3·3 1. e workers opened the bridge as soon as the boat arrived.
2. My friends were eating pizza but I preferred to study.
3. His girlfriend decided to break up with him because she did not like his cigarettes.
4. While we were going to the bank, we found out on the radio that someone was holding it up.
5. e football (soccer) fans tried to enter the stadium, but the guards did not let them pass.
6. Couldn’t you nish the homework? What is wrong? It’s just that you refused to study, isn’t it?
7. Several weeks went by and she nally answered him with a long letter, explaining to him that
she did not want to marry him, but rather someone else.
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Answer key 125
8. While the children were playing in the yard, their mother went up to the bedroom to try to
sleep, but she couldn’t.
9. e remen arrived at the re and quickly put it out.
10. While we were ying from Madrid to New York, we watched a movie.
11. e children got dressed, went out to play, and only came back when the sun was going
down.
12. It was a fantastic day: it was neither hot nor cold, it wasn’t cloudy, and I didn’t have anything
to do.
13. When John was eight years old, his family moved from Mexico City to San Antonio.
14. e roads were closed for several days, and when they opened them, no one could drive on
them because of the fallen trees.
15. At the moment her parents entered, her boyfriend jumped out the window and ran o.
16. Every thunderclap made the windows rattle; the cold could be felt entering from under the
doors when, suddenly, the door seemed to open of its own accord and a dark gure entered.
17. It was four o’clock when we le work, but we couldn’t get home until nine because of the
trac.
18. e submarine dove until it was 2,000 feet below sea level, then remained still for several
hours.
19. e politicians went on speaking for hours and, as always, no one believed them.
20. At the party last night, the girls started dancing but the guys kept on eating.
21. How old were you when your parents gave you permission to go to the movies alone?
22. e dog was sleeping when the cat ate up all his food.
23. When I woke up, breakfast was already ready.
24. We could smell the coee when we entered the restaurant.
25. When my father arrived, it was eight o’clock in the evening.
26. ere were a lot of people who wanted to attend the concert but many could not go because
there were not enough seats.
3·4 1. ¿Dónde estaban tus amigos cuando regresaste a casa anoche?
2. El chofer dormía cuando perdió control del auto.
3. ¿Qué hora era cuando viniste a mi casa?
4. ¿Iba ella a la esta cuando empezó a llover?
5. Terminaste la novela después de que yo llegué.
6. Los niños no sabían vestirse.
7. ¿Qué hiciste el n de semana pasado?
8. Cuando ella supo lo que pasaba en la escuela, llamó a sus amigos.
9. ¿Quisiste conocerlo cuando vino a visitarnos?
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126 Answer key
10. Nevaba la semana pasada pero no hacía mucho frío.
11. E llos (or Ellas) aprendieron a leer cuando tenían siete años.
12. Ella tenía veintisiete años cuando nos conocimos.
13. Ella se puso el abrigo y salió de la casa, aunque llovía.
14. Él quiso vender la casa, pero no pudo.
15. No quise dejar a mi perro solo cuando me fui de vacaciones el mes pasado.
16. Ella me conoció en la universidad el año pasado.
17. Ellos (or Ellas) siempre iban de compras juntos (or juntas), pero nunca compraban nada.
18. Yo quería ver la película, pero no pude ir.
19. Ella quiso asistir a clase pero no pudo ir.
20. Ellos (or Ellas) querían ir al zoológico, pero tuvieron que quedarse en casa.
21. Mi familia iba a la playa los nes de semana.
22. Cuando él supo que ella había salido con su mejor amigo, no quiso creerlo.
23. Ellos (or Ellas) miraban la tele cuando se apagaron las luces.
24. Él y yo cocinábamos mucho.
25. Teresa y Marta querían llamarme, pero su teléfono no funcionaba.
26. La madre de mi amigo hablaba por teléfono cuando yo quise llamarlo.
3·5 A.
1. pensaban (or creían)
2. había
3. sabía
4. descubrió
5. creía (or pensaba)
6. murió
7. encontró (or descubrió)
8. era
9. murió
10. aprendieron
11. Fue
B.
1. volvían
2. gustaba
3. hacía
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Answer key 127
4. querían
5. sabían
6. iban
7. llegaron
8. jugaban
9. vieron
10. había
11. supi eron
12. podía
13. estaba
14. oyeron
15. querían
16. preferían (or prerieron)
17. E r an
18. llegaron
4 The present perfect: What have you done for me lately?
4·1 1. V
2. PA
3. TP
4. A
5. A
6. V
7. V
8. V
9. PA
10. TP
11. V
12. TP
13. TP
14. V
15. A
16. V
17. PA
18. V
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128 Answer key
19. TP
20. PA
4·2 1. ha escrito
2. he visto
3. han corrido
4. ha sido
5. he hecho
6. se han muerto
7. han ido
8. has comido
9. ha dado
10. me he puesto
11. hemos abier to
12. os habéis acostado
13. me he acostado
14. has dicho
15. se ha dedicado
16. ha roto
17. he vuelto
18. has creído
19. ha n re suelto
20. hemos imprimido
4·3 1. Our plow has broken.
2. She has not told her boyfriend the truth.
3. Having seen the spectacle, they le the tent.
4. Due to the storm, a huge tree has fallen in the park.
5. She has married John.
6. e children are tired because they have played all aernoon.
7. So, I have not seen a marvel because I have never gone to Seville.
8. ere have been so many people who have been imprisoned recently that there is a new
prison built in another nearby town.
9. Has your friend done the homework?
10. We have the house open from four in the aernoon until six, during the summer.
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Answer key 129
11. I have put a new amenco CD in the CD player so I can listen to it.
12. ey say that the problem has been solved, but that the broken machine is still at the
construction site.
13. e concert has begun.
14. Pandora has opened the box.
15. at neighbor couple that used to ght so much has broken up.
16. Have you ever seen such arontery?
17. We have heard a lot about that politician and he does not impress us.
18. e boxer has fallen for the third time.
19. I don’t know what you have done, but it has caused a lot of problems.
20. Maria has fallen madly in love with him.
4·4 1. He visto el partido en la tele hoy.
2. Sus jefes le han dado un aumento de sueldo.
3. Ellos siempre han vivido en esta ciudad.
4. Has hecho todo el trabajo.
5. He puesto los papeles en la mesa.
6. Mi madre ha preparado una cena fantástica.
7. ¿Adónde ha ido mi perro?
8. El periódico ha sido impreso.
9. Hemos escrito una carta a nuestros/los abuelos.
10. Los niños se han puesto los zapatos, ¡por n!
11. Ella se ha roto la pierna. No debe esquiar.
12. Él ha competido con su hermano desde que estaban en la secundaria.
13. Ella se ha vestido para ir al baile.
14. Ellos han imprimido el periódico.
15. Las modelos se han maquillado y están listas para exhibir los nuevos estilos.
16. El carro se ha chocado con el árbol.
17. Su abuelo se ha muerto.
18. Su relación se ha acabado.
19. Ella ha perdido las llaves.
20. Susana ha dicho una mentira.
4·5 1. La maestra nos ha traído el pastel. La maestra nos lo ha traído.
2. El gato se ha comido el pájaro. El gato se lo ha comido.
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130 Answer key
3. Les hemos escrito las cartas a nuestros clientes. Se las hemos escrito.
4. Los gerentes le han dado un ascenso y un aumento de sueldo. Los gerentes se los han dado.
5. El taxista me ha llevado a mi hotel favorito.
6. Las secretarias/Los secretarios han puesto los documentos en el archivo. Las secretarias/Los
secretarios los han puesto en el archivo.
7. He escuchado la canción. La he escuchado.
8. El juez se ha muerto.
9. Le has dicho la verdad a ella. Se la has dicho.
10. Hemos sabido lo que ella le ha hecho a él.
11. ¿Han leído Uds. las noticias? ¿Las han leído?
12. Ellos han tratado de comprar las acciones. Ellos las han tratado de comprar./Ellos han
tratado de comprarlas.
13. ¿Qué les has dicho?
14. Ella ha roto el juguete. Ella lo ha roto.
15. ¿Han arreglado la computadora? ¿La han arreglado?
16. He vuelto/regresado a la ciudad.
17. Mis amigos me han enviado/mandado un regalo. Mis amigos me lo han enviado/mandado.
18. Ellos se han ido a pescar.
19. Susana y Juan han roto relaciones. Susana y Juan las han roto.
20. La he visto en la tienda de comestibles.
5 The pluperfect: What happened before something else
5·1 1. j
2. c
3. h
4. m
5. i
6. g
7. d
8. f
9. k
10. n
11. o
12. k
13. a
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Answer key 131
14. e
15. l
5·2 1. había dicho
2. había visto
3. había dado
4. se habían mudado
5. habían querido
6. me había puesto
7. se había ido
8. habían mirado
9. había enviado
10. se habían roto
11. había esc rito
12. había absuelto
13. habían pagado
14. habían leído
15. había vendido
16. habían venido
17. habíamos hecho
18. había comido
19. se había caído
20. habían examinado
5·3 1. When the monkey arrived at the foot of the tree, the tiger had already arrived.
2. e astronauts discovered that someone had arrived on the planet before them!
3. He hurried to get to the hospital on time, but his wife had already given birth when
he arrived.
4. e captain of the expedition had died before arriving at the river’s source.
5. When the rst humans appeared in Africa, the dinosaurs had already disappeared.
6. When they found out what was happening with the economy, it was late; they had put their
funds in xed bonds that they were not going to be able to sell for ve years.
7. Cervantes had died when his novel Persiles was published in 1616.
8. I went to the shop at eight, but the owners had not opened it.
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132 Answer key
9. Columbus cannot be considered the discoverer of the New World since, when he arrived, it
had been millennia since the Amerindians had discovered it.
10. We had solved the problem with the car when the mechanic came.
11. According to some doctors, when someone says that an old man fell and broke his hip, it’s
because his hip had broken already, causing him to fall.
12. When omas sent the letter, his girlfriend had already gone on vacation.
13. e parents told their children that the gis were from the ree Kings, but they had already
seen them under the bed.
14. We wanted to know if the cake for the party had been made yet.
15. Someone had burglarized the house because we saw that the window had been broken from
outside and the front door had been opened from within, which is how the burgler got out,
no doubt.
16. When the professor mentioned the idea to me, I realized that I had never thought of it.
17. His wife wanted to speak to him for a while more, but he had fallen asleep.
18. Several people arrived at the inn but the kitchen had closed.
19. e children wanted to swim but the sun had set already.
20. When I nished this exercise, it was three in the morning and I had not gone to sleep.
5·4 1. La cena ya estaba lista pero los niños no se habían lavado las manos.
2. Escalamos la montaña para ver la salida del sol, pero ya había salido.
3. Habían nacido los gatitos antes de la esta del sábado.
4. Él había decidido informarle a ella antes del martes sobre el viaje.
5. Cuando ella lo llamó, él ya había invitado a su hermana al baile.
6. Ellos volvieron a casa a las nueve, pero la película ya había terminado.
7. Él quería sorprenderla pero ella ya había visto la sortija.
8. Los niños habían abierto la ventana antes de la tormenta.
9. Ella no le había dicho nada sobre su otro novio cuando él los vio en el restaurante.
10. Cuando colgamos el teléfono, yo todavía no había encontrado el artículo.
11. El tren llegaba y todavía no habían abierto la estación.
12. Él no se había muerto cuando terminó la guerra.
13. Cuando sus abuelos vinieron a los EE.UU., él no había nacido todavía.
14. Mi amigo se había mudado antes de recibir la carta.
15. El artículo había sido escrito antes del domingo pasado.
16. Ella se había puesto el abrigo cuando se dio cuenta de que no hacía frío.
17. Mi amigo y yo no habíamos visto el mar hasta que teníamos diez años.
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Answer key 133
18. Él no había oído hablar de ese conjunto musical hasta que vio un artículo sobre ellos en
una revista.
19. Cuando él volvió de la guerra, supo que su novia se había casado.
20. ¿Habías leído los informes antes de reunirse el comité?
6 The conditional: What would be and the future
of the past
6·1 1. j
2. m
3. s
4. a
5. l
6. p
7. c
8. o
9. n
10. t
11. f
12. r
13. i
14. h
15. g
16. k
17. b
18. q
19. e
20. d
6·2 1. sabría
2. asistirías
3. creería
4. traería
5. gustaría
6. encontraríamos
7. podrían
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134 Answer key
8. trabajaríamos
9. tendrían
10. habría When used to express there is, are, were, etc., the verb haber is always singular.
11. diría
12. pondría
13. venderían
14. saldría
15. harías
16. Serían
17. iríamos
18. llegarían
19. daría
20. querría
6·3 1. e children would set the table if their mother asked them to.
2. If it weren’t for your parents, you wouldn’t be here.
3. e professor told her she would learn a lot in his class.
4. If you wanted, you could go with me to the movies, to see that actor you say I look like!
5. at guy told me that he would come look for me around six, but he has not come.
6. Where could my mother have been when her cousin called her?
7. What would my wife say to me if I called her “my heaven”?
8. Maria must have been writing poetry last night because she is in love with him.
9. I would dance more if my knee didn’t hurt.
10. If all mothers-in-law died, husbands would be worth more.
11. We would like to teach a class together if we could nd an interesting subject.
12. She told her little boy that she would give him a bath soon.
13. Would you be interested in traveling to Paris if the airline gave you a free ticket?
14. I promised my students that I would play more music in class.
15. If I played Cuban music, would the students dance?
16. Could you help me pick the songs for class?
17. Students ought to attend class every day.
6·4 1. Ella iría a la esta si tuviera tiempo.
2. Ellos dijeron que traerían la comida.
3. Él me dijo que ella encontraría el número de teléfono del gerente.
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Answer key 135
4. Ellos estarían en la librería cuando llamé.
5. ¿Qué me diría si pudiera verme ahora?
6. ¿Cómo dirías “It’s a beautiful day” en español?
7. Si Juan fuera más alto, le pediríamos que jugara en nuestro equipo.
8. Cuando su novio regresó a casa, ella estaría estudiando.
9. Él estaría contento cuando la vio anoche.
10. ¿Qué harías si ganaras la lotería?
11. Mi amigo dijo que leería más si tuviera tiempo.
12. Si no fuera por la diferencia de edad, su situación sería diferente.
13. Yo estaría cocinando cuando me llamaste.
14. Aun si el precio de las casas subiera mucho, no vendería la mía.
15. El carro iría demasiado rápido.
16. Si tuviera un caballo, lo llamaría Sirocco.
17. El médico me dijo que no me operaría la rodilla.
18. Los niños jugarían cuando empezó a llover. (or estarían jugando)
19. Si yo fuera francés, pensaría de manera diferente sobre la vida.
20. Yo comería más pescado si no costara tanto.
7 The conditional perfect: What would have been
7·1 1. o
2. k
3. t
4. i
5. j
6. a
7. q
8. b
9. r
10. s
11. c
12. d
13. e
14. m
15. g
16. p
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136 Answer key
17. l
18. h
19. n
20. f
7·2 1. habría sabido
2. habrías asistido
3. habría creído
4. traería
5. gustaría
6. habríamos encontrado
7. podrían
8. habríamos trabajado
9. habrían tenido
10. habrían abandonado
11. habr ía d icho
12. habría puesto
13. habrían vendido
14. habría salido
15. habrías hecho
16. Habría sido
17. habríamos ido
18. habrían llegado
19. habr ía d ado
20. habría querido
7·3 1. e children would have set the table if their mother had asked them to.
2. If it had not been for your parents, you would not have been born, of course.
3. e professor told her that she would have learned a lot in his class if she had dedicated
herself to her studies.
4. If you had wanted, you would have been able to go with me to the movies that night, to see
the actor you say I look like!
5. at young man confessed to me that he would have come for me around six, but that he
couldn’t because his car broke down.
6. We were wondering where my mother could have been when she nally came home.
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Answer key 137
7. What would my wife have said to me if I had called her “my heaven” when she was angry?
8. Maria would probably have written poetry that summer because she was in love with him.
9. I would have danced more if my knee had not hurt so much.
10. If mothers-in-law had all died, husbands would have been worth more.
11. We would have liked to teach a class together that year if we had been able to nd an
interesting subject.
12. She told her little boy that she would have bathed him but there was not enough hot water.
13. Would you have been interested in traveling to Paris last fall if the airline had given you a free
ticket?
14. I assured the students that I would have played more music in class if it hadn’t been for the
class across the hall.
15. If I had played Cuban music, would the students have danced?
16. Would you have been able to help me select the songs for class if we had been able to play
them?
17. e students would have attended class every day if it had not been for the many distractions
of the city.
7·4 1. Ella habría ido a la esta si hubiera tenido tiempo.
2. Ellos dijeron que habrían traído (or llevado) la comida, pero que no tenían suciente dinero.
3. Él nos dijo que ella habría encontrado el número de teléfono del gerente si no hubiera perdido
su bolsa.
4. Ellos habrían estado en la librería, porque cuando les llamé, mencionaron que habían
encontrado una novela interesante.
5. ¿Qué habría dicho ella si hubiera podido verme entonces?
6. ¿Cómo habrías dicho “It’s a beautiful day” en español?
7. Si Juan hubiera sido más alto, le habríamos pedido que jugara en nuestro equipo.
8. Ella habría estado estudiando cuando regresó a casa su novio, porque sus libros estaban en
la mesa.
9. Él la habría estado esperando toda la noche.
10. ¿Qué habrías hecho si hubieras ganado la lotería?
11. Mi amigo dijo que habría leído más si hubiera tenido tiempo cuando era niño.
12. Si no hubiera sido por la diferencia de edad, su situación habría sido diferente.
13. Cuando tú lo llamaste, él estaría cocinando porque hablaba mucho de la cena.
14. Aun si el precio de las casas hubiera subido mucho, no habría vendido la mía.
15. El carro habría estado yendo demasiado rápido.
16. Si hubiera tenido un caballo, lo habría llamado Sirroco.
17. El médico me dijo que no me habría operado la rodilla si no me hubiera dolido tanto.
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138 Answer key
18. Los niños habrían estado jugando toda la mañana cuando empezó a llover.
19. Si yo hubiera sido francés, habría pensado de manera diferente sobre la vida.
20. Yo habría comido más pescado si hubiera sabido que era tan sano.
8 The sequence of tenses: Observations on the
indicative and the subjunctive
8·1 1. podían, tenían Contemporaneous past actions: the dogs were in a condition of being unable to
concentrate because they were hungry.
2. esperaban, fueran e past time frame is stated at the end of the sentence: yesterday. e main
clause is a verb of wishing, introducing a subordinated clause in which, therefore, the verb must
be in the imperfect subjunctive.
3. dijo, viera e time frame is set by the verb era in the subordinated clause, thus revealing that
the main verb had to be in the preterite (not the imperfect indicative, because the verb decir is
used to refer to one moment of speaking in the past). e last verb, in the imperfect subjunctive,
is in the clause subordinated to the second subordinated clause era importante que. In other
words, the rst clause is not the one that causes the subjunctive to be necessary in the third
clause, since the rst clause employs the verb decir in its primary meaning of saying, not
telling.
4. dije, era, leyera is sentence is a parallel of the previous one in terms of the types of clauses
and their relationships to one another.
5. Quieres, paguen Contemporaneous present actions as dened by the word ahora.
6. estudia, pueda ere is a reference to a future time, thus the present indicative is used in the
main, or independent, clause and the present subjunctive is used in the subordinated clause.
7. mencionó, habían publicado, dudé, hubieran traducido e time frame is established by the
temporal adverb ayer. e publication of the book is prior to that moment of speaking, hence
the pluperfect indicative is used to report it. e speaker reports his or her response with the
preterite, since the doubt came to mind when John mentioned it. e pluperfect subjunctive
must be used in the subordinated clause introduced by the verb of doubt in the past because the
speaker is doubtful that the book had been published prior to 2000.
8. Es, has escrito is is a straightforward declaration of what the speaker perceives, all
indicative. e present perfect is used to show the action of writing as having commenced in
2006 and continued up to the moment of speaking.
9. quiere, diga Since no time frame is provided, the key has used the present tense only, indicative
and subjunctive respectively. If the speaker were referring to the past, the verbs would be
quería, dijera.
10. pidió, cantáramos e phrase el n de semana pasado sets the action in the past. e
subjunctive is used because the subordinated clause is introduced by a verb of requesting in the
main clause.
11. creo, es, trabajes Since there is no indication of a past time, the present tense is used in the key.
However, if the speaker were referring to the past, the verbs would have been creía (or creí),
era, trabajaras. In this latter case, the choice of imperfect or preterite for the rst verb depends
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Answer key 139
only on whether the belief was an attitude the speaker held or an impression made at some
moment in the past. e second verb would be in the imperfect indicative because of the
expression of emotion, in the past.
12. gustaba, hubiéramos renunciado e time frame is the past. e verb gustar is in the imperfect
because it refers not to an instant impression of disliking but to a situation. e phrase antes de
la Navidad is what makes the pluperfect subjunctive necessary.
8·2 1. a e main verb is in the past and is a verb of wanting.
2. d e main verb is a verb in the past used to merely report a previous action, hence no
subjunctive can be used and that previous action is expressed with the pluperfect indicative.
3. a e main clause is in the past and introduces a subordinated adjective clause describing a
beach that was not yet known to the subjects, hence the imperfect subjunctive must be used.
4. c e recommendation has been made regarding the future, hence the present subjunctive
is used.
5. b e main clause introduces a subordinated clause describing a nonexistent antecedent and is
in the past, therefore the imperfect subjunctive must be used.
6. c e main verb is in the past and the adverbial clause antes de que always requires the
subjunctive, hence the imperfect subjunctive in the subordinated clause.
7. b ere is an element of anticipation established by the phrase iba a ir and since it is in the
past , the imperfect subjunctive must be used in the clause it introduces.
8. a e time frame established by the main verb is the past. e conditional in the subordinated
clause expresses the consequence of a hypothetical action, which must be expressed by the
imperfect subjunctive.
9. d e time frame is the future and the adverbial expression a menos que always requires the
subjunctive, hence the present subjunctive must be used.
10. b e conditional perfect expresses the consequence of a hypothetical past action, which must
be expressed by the pluperfect subjunctive.
8·3 1. nieva, voy e present time frame is revealed by the use of ahora, so the only challenge in this
sentence is that of subject and verb agreement. e subject of verbs expressing weather
phenomena is an abstract third person, such as Mother Nature.
2. nadar, decidieron e only admissible form of a verb that immediately follows a preposition is
the innitive. Because of the verb decidir, the sentence makes more sense in the past, unless one
thinks of this decision to run ve miles as a habitual action in the present, deciden; in the past,
decidían).
3. escribe, mira e use of generalmente, without any reference to past time, makes this sentence
most likely a statement of a general truth, hence the present. If there were an explicit reference
to a past time frame, the use of generalmente would require the use of the imperfect indicative
(escribía, miraba).
4. dijo, hicieras e past time frame is revealed by quería; decir is used in the sense of to say, not
to tell, so the need for the imperfect subjunctive of hacer depends on quería.
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140 Answer key
5. pensaba, sabía, vería e use of murió sets the sentence in the past. e phrase todas las
noches makes the imperfect of pensar necessary and the conditional of ver is an example of
this tense’s use as the future of the past.
6. estaban, supiste e imperfect inquires about the circumstance in the past when a person rst
learned of an accident.
7. es, fue e use of ahora shows that we are talking about what is obvious now. Since John
Lennon is dead, and this is a summarizing statement about him, the preterite of ser is used in
the second clause.
8. quisieran, pudieron e time frame is revealed at the end of the sentence. e phrase por
mucho que therefore requires the imperfect subjunctive, and the preterite of poder, in the
negative, shows that the climbers failed to reached the mountain’s summit.
9. había dicho, hiciera, iba, recogía e use of the pluperfect for the verb decir establishes the
chronology of events in the past: rst, her mother told her not to do something, which she then
went along doing, going through the woods and picking owers (two contemporaneous past
actions).
10. habría hecho, hubiera tenido is is a past hypothesis or counterfactual statement, hence the
correlative construction using the conditional perfect and the pluperfect subjunctive.
11. buscábamos, estaría, encontramos, buscamos e adverb ayer sets the action in the past and
refers to a repeated action. e conditional is used to show probability in the past and the two
preterites are used to report a completed action and its result.
12. hablaba, daba Since Castro no longer gives speeches, and the statement is descriptive, both
verbs are in the imperfect.
13. se ponía, nos dimos, teníamos, fuimos e word mientras in the past (indicated by ese día)
requires the imperfect. e preterite thus is the most logical choice for darse cuenta. e
imperfect is used to show a condition and the preterite to show the action taken.
14. decidió, se casaría Amaranta nally made a decision, hence the preterite. e conditional is
used in its function as the future of the past.
15. viajábamos, miraba, parecía, leía is sentence makes the most sense interpreted in the past,
although there is no explicit reference to a past time. All the actions are contemporaneous,
hence the imperfect indicative. If interpreted as a statement about the present: viajamos, mira,
parece, leo.
16. informó, había visto, navegaba When the person informed the speaker, the friend had already
seen the orca, hence the pluperfect indicative. e imperfect indicative is used to establish the
past circumstances under which the whale sighting happened.
17. sugirió, hicieras e past-tense, indicative verb of recommending in the main clause requires
the imperfect subjunctive to be used in the subordinated noun clause.
18. sabían, iban, cometieron (or cometían) e rst imperfect verb describes the circumstance. e
second is another way of showing the future of the past and the last verb, if in the preterite,
summarizes the soldiers’ actions, while if it is in the imperfect, would suggest that more
information is about to be oered.
19. soñaba, sabía, estaba All the verbs refer to contemporaneous past actions.
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Answer key 141
20. puse, quería, viera, robara e preterite is used to report a simple past action, the imperfect to
introduce the two things the subject did not want to happen. e last two verbs are in the
imperfect subjunctive because they are both subordinated to quería.
21. prohibía, saliera e mother’s prohibition was a continual one. e second verb is in the
subordinated clause and hence must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If understood as a present
situation: prohibe, salga.
22. se sentían, revelaran, había ocurrido e past time frame is established by the last phrase. e
rst verb is imperfect since it expresses a mental state in the past. e subjunctive is always
used aer antes de que, and in this case is in a past time frame, hence the imperfect
subjunctive. e pluperfect indicative is necessary to clarify the chronology.
23. sugirieron, abriera, disminuía e verb of suggesting requires the use of the subjunctive in the
subordinated clause. e adversative conjunction pero ends the inuence of that verb and thus
the last verb is in the imperfect indicative, stating a general truth about trac congestion at
some period in the past. If understood as a present situation: sugieren, abra, disminuye.
24. cantó, despertó e preterite is used to show a series of past actions.
25. conocieron, regresaron e preterite is used to show a series of past actions.
26. viajábamos, jugábamos, informó, habría e two verbs in the imperfect refer to two
contemporaneous past actions. e preterite indicates an action that happened in that
situation and the conditional is used in its function of showing the future in the past.
27. llevó, examinara, dijo, tenía e preterite refers to a one-time event in the past; the imperfect
subjunctive is required because of the purpose clause para que. e second use of the preterite
refers to another nished action and the imperfect refers to the cat’s condition.
28. iba, se negara, tendría e imperfect of the formula ir 1 a 1 innitive in the imperfect is used
as another way of expressing the future when in the past. e imperfect subjunctive is required
because it is used in the if-clause of a hypothetical statement, the consequence of which is
expressed with the conditional. If understood as a present situation: voy, se niega, tendré.
29. hemos prometido, vamos e present perfect shows that the action of speaking began in the
past and its eect (a promise) continues in force. e promised action is still in the future from
the time frame of the sentence.
30. se meten (or se metan), están, vayamos Aer aunque, either the indicative or subjunctive can
be used, indicating certainty or to suggest a degree of doubt. e second verb is in the present
indicative because it is a simple assertion of fact. e last verb is in the present subjunctive
because the subordinated noun clause in which it appears is introduced by a verb of emotion.
31. preeren, es Both verbs are in the present indicative because they make simple assertions.
32. Creías (or Crees), era (or fue), sentía e past time frame is established by anoche, and ser
could be either in the imperfect indicative, to express a general impression, or in the preterite,
to show a change of impression. e last verb is in the imperfect indicative because it purports
to describe an emotional state in the past.
33. asistirá, puede, quiere, vayas e meeting is future relative to the moment of speaking. e next
two verbs are in the present indicative because they express current circumstances. e last verb
is in the present subjunctive because it is introduced by a verb of wanting.
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142 Answer key
34. harían, prepararas e conditional is used both in its function as the future of the past and to
show the consequence of the action in the if-clause, which is expressed by the imperfect
subjunctive.
35. piensan, haga e subjunctive must be used aer a menos que and the time frame is the
present, hence the present subjunctive.
36. vinieron, habían oído, necesitaban Although the sentence begins with the present, the verb
creer is used to indicate the speaker’s current belief about past events. e delegates arrived
and had already heard all that they needed. e last verb is in the imperfect indicative because
it describes the mental readiness of the delegates.
37. vinieron, hubieran oído, necesitaban is sentence, a permutation of the previous one,
introduces the situation with a verb of doubt instead of belief. e doubt is not about the arrival
of the delegates, hence that verb is still in the preterite of the indicative. e doubt is cast on
whether they had heard what they needed, hence the pluperfect subjunctive. Note that there is
no doubt cast on whether the information that they needed exists, hence the last verb is still in
the imperfect indicative.
38. vimos, se ponía (or se puso) e usage of the imperfect and the preterite is explained by the fact
that Maria was in the act of putting on her coat when the subjects saw her.
39. salieron, habían olvidado e subjects le without the credit cards, therefore the forgetting
happened prior to their departure, hence the pluperfect to express their omission.
40. dejó, fui e preterite is used to express two sequential actions in the past.
41. creería, viera e conditional is used both in its function as a future of the past and to express
the consequence of a hypothetical action, although here that action is not stated in an if-clause
but in an adverbial clause that either anticipates a future event (seeing with his own eyes), or
admits it as possible.
42. vio, creyó e preterite is used to express two sequential actions in the past.
43. propusieron, se construyera e main verb is a verb of recommendation in the preterite,
requiring that the imperfect subjunctive be used in the subordinated clause.
44. dijeron, habían observado, navegaba e preterite is used because the sailors’ speaking is
completed. e pluperfect indicates an occurrence prior to that moment of speaking and the
imperfect shows the circumstance in which their observation took place.
45. vieron, había roto, descubrieron e preterite is used to show that the action of seeing is
regarded as complete. Prior to the subjects’ seeing, the damage had been done, hence the
pluperfect. e last verb is in the preterite because it expresses a second sequential action in the
past (following vieron). e subjects rst saw the broken window, and then discovered evidence
of an additional crime.
46. se acostaron, se durmieron e preterite is used to express two sequential past actions.
47. llegué, abrió, encendió e preterite is used to express three sequential past actions.
48. veamos, aprendamos, sabíamos e viewing of the movie is future relative to the present
moment of speaking. Hence, the action expressed by the verb following cuando is anticipated
and therefore the present subjunctive is needed. e second use of the present subjunctive,
however, is due to its being introduced by a verb of wishing in the present indicative. e last
verb is in the imperfect indicative because it follows the adverb antes.
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Answer key 143
49. has leído, ves, era, entenderás e temporal clues in the sentence make these the only
reasonable forms. No subjunctives are necessary.
50. quisieron, se enamoraron e past time frame is established by conocieron. e preterite of
querer is the most reasonable, since it is stated that the couple fell in love almost against their
will. e preterite of enamorarse is used simply because the focus is on the past action, not the
process of falling in love.
8·4 1. b. e actions of the two verbs esperar and ponerse are ongoing and happening at the same
time; therefore, both verbs must be in the imperfect indicative.
2. c. e use of the imperfect subjunctive in the “if clause” requires the use of the conditional to
show the consequence, i.e., what she would do if John quit smoking.
3. d. e preterit is the proper choice because the specic and nite time span of the engagement is
the only information oered; the engagement period is not a backdrop for some other action.
4. a. e action of asking for her hand in marriage is expressed in the preterit because it occurred
once – at the end of the dating period of a year, expressed in the pluperfect indicative.
5. b. e present subjunctive must be used because the subordinated clause (interrupted by the
clause beginning with cuando) is introduced by an impersonal expression of probability. e
imperfect subjunctive in option (d) is not correct because the impersonal expression es normal
is in the present, not the past.
6. d. e two actions in this sentence, expressed by ir in both cases, are sequential and completed.
erefore, the preterit must be used in both instances.
7. d. Both the wedding and the reception that follows are yet future. e phrase después de que
introduces and action that is anticipated, and therefore the present subjunctive must be used.
8. a. e main clause refers to a time a few generations ago when it was a common custom for
single women to have a dowry in preparation for marriage. e timeframe requires the past
tense, and the impersonal expression of urgency expressed in the past, era imprescindible,
requires the imperfect subjunctive.
9. b. e focus is in the moment when, aer going out for a long time, Ramón proposed to her. e
preterit is needed because it is a one-time event in the past.
10. d. Since the sentence begins by revealing that Juan did in fact go to a shop at a specic time
– ayer – and with a specic errand in mind which he was unable to complete, the preterit is
needed. Remember that the preterit of poder means either to succeed or to fail. e imperfect is
incorrect here because the imperfect of poder means either to be able or unable, as a condition,
not as the result of an attempt to do something.
11. a and d. Option (a) completes the sentence by using querer, which, in the preterit denotes either
trying or refusing at a particular moment and option (d) simply uses llamar in the preterit to
introduce what happened when she called.
12. a and c. Without more context, option (c) is more likely, since conocer, used in the preterit,
means “to meet.” In option (a), by using the imperfect, the speaker is speaking about a time in
the past during which he or she was acquainted with María.
13. b. e use of hacer in the imperfect in time clauses in which the imperfect of the verb in the que
clause, is actually pluperfect in meaning: “When Peter moved from his apartment, I had known
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144 Answer key
him for several years.” e other options cannot be used to complete the sentence in most
dialects of Spanish, although in the Caribbean basin, it would not be uncommon to hear people
use option (c), a vestige of the Spanish of the Golden Age.
14. a. e preterit is needed because it explains the decision that Marta made when she found out
what Mateo had done. When saber is used in the preterit, it refers to a specic moment in the
past when something was or was not found out.
15. c. e exclamation itself is in the preterit because it is a completed action; what was exclaimed
expresses a state or description of the speaker already being in the know – hence the imperfect.
e use of ya reinforces that the speaker already knew their plans.
16. d. e two actions are viewed as ongoing and contemporaneous, hence the imperfect is used for
buying owers and Miguel’s loving his girlfriend. Option (a) is admissible if the speaker wishes
to indicate that the couple either broke up or that one of them is deceased, viewing the
relationship, whatever its duration, as over, although the purchases of owers is still viewed as a
repeated or habitual action during some period in the past.
17. b. e anniversary was celebrated last month, and the couple has made the trip to New
Orleans. e preterit is needed because the decision to go is in the past. Option (d), although in
the past – imperfect – focuses on the process of deciding, for which there is no context to justify.
e other options are all in the wrong time frame.
18. c. e wedding is reported to have occurred on a hot June day, so the preterit is the correct
choice. ere is no context or other action reported as taking place during the wedding, so
option (a) is not admissible; option (b) would only be possible if the speaker were making a
prediction and option (d), in the conditional, is incorrect because the cue is not a hypothetical
or “if clause” which would have required the use of the imperfect subjunctive (the cue contains
no verb; it is merely a prepositional phrase).
19. a, b and d. Julio’s change in civil status by divorce is reported in the present perfect, suggesting
that it is a recent event. Option (a) continues that time frame by stating that since the divorce,
several women have wanted to go out with him. Option (b) is predictive, as if to say “Now that
he is divorced, women will want to go out with him.” Option (d) is a simple statement about the
present state of aairs – that women do want to go out with him. e remaining option (c) is
not admissible, since it is conditional and does not complete any hypothetical or “if clause.”
20. a and b. Irene’s marriage to Pablo is reported in the pluperfect – that she “had married” him for
money – inviting a conjectural perspective (an implied hypothetical) regarding Pablo’s other
prenuptial prospects which the speaker views as nil. e more standard of these two correct
options is (b) since the implied hypothesis is that “if he had asked” any other woman, she would
have turned him down. In the Caribbean basin, and elsewhere, though less frequently, option
(a) is also admissible, since the -ra form of the imperfect subjunctive is oen used as the
conditional (and even as an equivalent of the pluperfect indicative).
8•5 1. c
2. f
3. h
4. k
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 144 10/23/17 12:19 PM
Answer key 145
5. a
6. t
7. i
8. l
9. j
10. b
11. q
12. d
13. g
14. s
15. m
16. n
17. o
18. p
19. r
20. e
8•6 1. d. e subordinated noun clause is introduced by a verb of expectation, in the past, therefore
only the imperfect subjunctive of the existential verb haber is admissible.
2. c. e adverbial expression antes de que always requires the subjunctive, because it always
expresses the anticipation of some action. Here, since the sentence is cast in the past, only the
imperfect subjunctive is admissible.
3. b. the subordinated noun clause is introduced by a verb of disbelief, in the past, therefore only
the imperfect subjunctive of the verb ser is admissible.
4. c. e verb in the rst half of the sentence is in the present perfect indicative. e subjunctive
options (a) and (b) are not admissible, since the sentence asserts an observation. Option (d) is
incorrect because it is temporally illogical.
5. All options are correct, because the cue does not establish a time frame (it does not contain a
conjugated verb). Option (a) is a pseudo passive or impersonal expression, using se. e other
three are true passive constructions, in dierent time frames: present perfect, future and
aoristic aspect of the present indicative (which uses the present indicative to state a general
truth).
6. a. e use of the preterit in the main clause establishes a moment in the past when exploitation
began. Only the time frame oered in option (a), using the pluperfect indicative, completes the
sentence in a logical way with respect to time.
7. d. e use of the adverb durante makes the use of the imperfect nearly obligatory, although
option (a) is admissible because the speaker may conceive of the historical period as a whole,
and as completed. Option (b) is likely in lively discourse, as an example of the historic, or vivid
present.
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146 Answer key
8. c. Without any context, the preterit is the best option. e existence of Potosi has to be
expressed in the imperfect, since it is described (it does not express a narrative action) and since
no elaboration about the deaths of native peoples is invited, their deaths are reported as
historical data, completed and nished in the past. Options (a) and (d) could be correct if the
sentence introduced an expansive history. Option (b) is incorrect because the main clause does
not create any need for the subjunctive.
9. b. Only this option, using conditional perfect, completes the past hypothetical or contrary-to-
fact statement of the if-clause, constructed by the pluperfect subjunctive.
10. d. e adverbial expression con tal de que always requires the subjunctive since, as it expresses
a contingency, it anticipates some sort of action. e main clause sets the time frame in the
past, therefore only the imperfect subjunctive is admissible.
11. a. e present perfect indicative is needed because no further context is given that could justify
the use of the pluperfect in option (d), which would be admissible if there were another clause to
tell the reader that it has rained recently in this desert. e other options are inadmissible
because the subjunctive is not required to complete the main clause and because the use of the
future perfect is illogical.
12. b. e main clause refers to the moment when the Spaniards rst entered the Aztec capital,
therefore the only option that completes the sentence in a logical way is option (b). e main
clause contains nothing that requires the subjunctive, the present perfect or the future.
13. c. Without more context, only this option is correct. In any context, option (d) is impossible,
since Magellan’s otilla circumnavigated the globe between 1519-1522. Option (b) could occur
only when the vivid, or historical present is used – typically in animated speech to create
suspense.
14. a. e use of durante normally attracts the use of the imperfect, although option (b) is
admissible if the speaker is thinking of the colonial period as a whole – as a completed historical
period. e other options are either in the wrong tense or tense and mood.
15. d. e adverbial expression para que expresses a “purpose for which” and therefore expresses
the anticipation of an action. e subjunctive is always required aer this expression. Since the
main clause establishes a past time frame, only the imperfect subjunctive is admissible.
16. a. e time frame is past and refers to the moment when the Portuguese saw the coast of Brazil,
and thought that they had discovered the Earthly Paradise, hence only the pluperfect indicative
is admissible.
17. d. e statement expresses a question about what would have happened if the Spaniards had
not been able to conquer the Native American nations they encountered. e use of the present
in me pregunto does not establish any time frame for the events the statement refers to. e
“wondering” is in the present, but it refers to events in the past in a hypothetical, clearly
contrary-to-fact statement. e only way to complete the if-clause of a hypothesis in the past is
by using the pluperfect subjunctive.
18. Any of the options are admissible, depending on context. Option (a) could be used in the
introduction to a historical perspective about the trans-Atlantic slave trade – to say that the
production of sugar cane would stimulate the demand for slaves. Option (b) is another example
of the vivid, or historical present, while option (c) is the best choice in the absence of any
context. Option (d), like option (a), could be used to express, in a matter-of-fact way, and by
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 146 10/23/17 12:19 PM
Answer key 147
way of introduction, how the cultivation of sugar cane continually or repeatedly, during the
colonial period, was creating a demand for slaves.
19. b. Although the geological conditions of the Andes are, from a human perspective, ever-present,
which could tempt one to select option (d), the main clause uses a verb of emotion, in the past,
to introduce the subordinated noun clause, which requires that the subjunctive be used, and in
the imperfect. One might be tempted to select option (c) because of the past time frame, but the
verb of emotion in the main clause requires the subjunctive.
20. a. e if-clause or hypothetical clause establishes the past time frame. However, the use of es
probable que is relevant when selecting the option because it interrupts the hypothesis and
injects itself as a statement of probability, expressed in the present, but referring to the past,
making option (a) the only grammatically admissible choice. If the phrase es probable que were
omitted, option (c) would be correct instead.
8•7 1. fui
2. llegamos
3. habíamos salido
4. habíamos acordado
5. pudiéramos
6. iba
7. compartiéramos
8. gustaba
9. escuchábamos
10. tenía
11. su b im os
12. se encontraba
13. decidimos
14. alquilamos
15. piloteaba
16. dio
17. había alistado
18. abordáramos
19. se ocupaba
20. pescábamos
21. v o lvía
22. limpiaba
23. pudiéramos
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148 Answer key
8•8 1. llegaron/habíamos
2. gustaba
3. enseñó
4. puse
5. eran/encantaba
6. estaba/trabajaba
7. hubieran/habría
8. puso/pidiera
9. eran/saqué
10. serían/llamó
11. f ui/ había
12. preparaba/viniera
13. dijo/pusieran
14. gustaba/dijera/lavaran
15. salió/compró
16. fueras/tendrías [or, in the present: vas/tienes]
17. obser vó/había
18. sabía/hubiera
19. most ró/ hic iera n [or, in the present: muestra/hagan]
20. quemó/subió
8•9 1. fui/saqué
2. imprimió/llevé
3. entré/reconoció
4. tuve/arreglara
5. dijo/podrían [or podían, or pudieron]
6. quise/pude
7. conocí/bailaban
8. supo/había
9. mandó/tenía
10. salieron/lloviera
11. as e gu r ó/de p o si t a ría/re g r e s a r a
12. estaba/entró
13. decidió/podía
14. cobró/insistió/reembolsara
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Answer key 149
15. daba/tuvieran
16. pidió/tuviera
17. buscamos [or buscábamos]/fuera
18. se graduó/tenía [or tiene]
19. l le vó/se a c ept a r a
20. pidió/hiciera
8•10 1. planeaban
2. tenían
3. pareció
4. fue
5. hizo
6. fue
7. compararon
8. ofrecía
9. incluían
10. prometían
11. de cid ieron
12. llevaría
13. pasarían
14. informó [or dijo]
15. empezaría
16. advirtió [or informó or dijo]
17. deberían
18. tuvieran
19. er a
20. sospechaban
21. fuera
22. estaban
23. habían
8•11 1. k
2. m
3. a
4. b
Vogt_PMP Spanish Past-Tense Verbs.indd 149 10/23/17 12:19 PM
150 Answer key
5. l
6. n
7. c
8. r
9. j
10. f
11. p
12. g
13. h
14. q
15. d
16. e
17. i
18. s
19. t
20. o
8•12 1. manejaba
2. hubo
3. iba
4. vi
5. había
6. frené
7. chocara
8. me sentí
9. había
10. era
11. habría
12. llegó
13. hizo
14. amenazaba
15. logré
16. pude
17. había
18. sabía
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Answer key 151
19. iba
20. importara
21. e sper aba n
8•13 1. b. e adverbial expression antes de que must always be followed by the subjunctive; in this
case, since it is introduced by a verb in the past – contrataron – the imperfect subjunctive must
be used.
2. a. e need to buy new staplers arose at a particular moment in the past, either as a decision or
a realization, hence the use of the preterit with tener. e reason this was necessary must be
expressed in the imperfect, because it is a circumstance or description. Option (b) would imply
that all the staplers malfunctioned at the same time. e time frames of the other options are
incorrect for completing the sentence.
3. d. e subordinated noun clause is introduced by the main clause which contains a verb of
emotion in the past, so only the imperfect subjunctive can be used.
4. c. e adverbial expression después de que requires the subjunctive only when the action
following it is or was anticipated. In this case, the main verb is in the past, which means that
the action is a mere historical report. e preterit is necessary because in this context, the
meaning of the verb causar refers to an incident as a concluded matter.
5. a. e verb of the main clause is a verb of hoping or expecting, in the past and thus the verb in
the subordinated noun clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If the main verb had been
in the present – esperamos – then option (d) would have been correct.
6. d. e verb in the main clause is not a verb of belief, but a verb of doubt or an expression of
probability, and is in the past; the subordinated noun clause must use the imperfect
subjunctive. If the main verb had been in the present – sospecho – then option (b) would have
been correct.
7. c. e main clause contains a verb of emotion, in the past and thus the verb in the subordinated
noun clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If the verb in the main clause had been in the
present – molesta – then option (a) would have been correct.
8. b. e subordinated adjective clause modies a non-existent antecedent – colega – in the past,
therefore the verb in the subordinated adjective clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If
the verb in the main clause had been in the present – tengo – then option (d) would have been
correct.
9. c. e main clause contains a verb of emotion in the past. erefore, the verb in the
subordinated noun clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If the main verb had been in
the present – alegra – then option (b) would have been correct.
10. a. e subordinated adjective clause modies a vague antecedent – fotocopiadora – in the past,
therefore the verb in the subordinated adjective clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If
the verb in the main clause had been in the present – Necesitamos – then option (b) would
have been correct.
11. d. e subordinated adjective clause modies a vague antecedent – personal – in the past,
therefore the verb in the subordinated adjective clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If
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152 Answer key
the verbs in the main clause had been in the present – dice and hace – then option (c) would
have been correct.
12. d. e if-clause expresses a hypothetical or contrary-to-fact statement in the present, by using
the imperfect subjunctive; the consequence must be in the conditional. Note that in English, the
past is properly used in the same way in the if-clause: “If the company were to invest…” or “If
the company invested....” Also note that in the Caribbean basin, one will hear and read the
imperfect subjunctive instead of the conditional – hubiera – a vestige of usage from the age of
conquest and colonization.
13. a. e boss’s retirement is not anticipated. It is reported as a matter of record, requiring the
indicative; since it is a one-time event, the preterit is the only admissible option.
14. c. e adverbial expression a menos que is always followed by the subjunctive. Since the main
verb is in the past, only the imperfect subjunctive is admissible. If the main verb had been in the
present – queremos – then option (a) would have been correct.
15. c. e subordinated adjective clause modies a vague antecedent – computadora – in the past,
therefore the verb in the subordinated adjective clause must be in the imperfect subjunctive. If
the verb in the main clause had been in the present – quiero – then option (d) would have been
correct.
16. d. Although the main clause contains a verb of emotion, it does not govern the clause following
porque. However, if the main clause had been only A mi hermana, no le agradaba que su
trabajo… then option (a) would have been correct; likewise, if, in the same sentence, the verb
were agrada then option (b) would have been correct.
17. c. Although the adverb mientras is oen used to introduce any number of simultaneously
ongoing actions in the past (imperfect indicative) or present (indicative), just as in English, it
can also be used to express an ongoing circumstance in the past during which other things
happened. ere are no anticipated actions in this sentence, so the preterit is used to express the
action that the speaker did while his colleagues were talking nonsense: he went out to have a
cup of Cuban coee.
18. b. is sentence expresses a sequence of actions in the past. Being a tense that moves a narrative
along, the preterit is the correct choice.
19. d. is sentence reports two actions in the past, one which happened as a result of the rst, and
therefore the preterit is used.
20. c. e phrase set o by commas merely stands in between the main clause and the subordinated
noun clause. e adverbial phrase a pesar de que does not govern the tense or mood of the verb
in the subordinated noun clause, the main clause does. Since the main clause contains an
impersonal expression of emotion in the past, the verb in the subordinated noun clause must be
in the imperfect subjunctive.
8•14 1. querían/cumpliera
2. iba/tuviera
3. jugaba/preparaba
4. buscaba/vendiera
5. era/gustaba
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Answer key 153
6. quería/pudiera
7. prefería/hacía
8. sabía/tendría
9. permitió/entrara
10. sorprendió/pudiera
11. adoraba n /f uera n
12. es/hayan
13. hubiera/habrían
14. buceó/pudo [or podía]/hubiera
15. se imaginaba/llegara
16. había/causaba
17. subiera/veríamos
18. vivía/cultivaba
19. tuvo/ara ñara
20. sonó/se asustó
8•15 1. Carlos Gardel, the incomparably famous tango singer, died in a plane crash in Medellín,
Colombia in 1935.
2. I have a friend who attended a Silvio Rodriguez concert in Havana a few years ago.
3. e other night, I went to a fund-raising event for a non-prot organization dedicated to
global health.
4. e Festival of San Marcos in Aguascalientes had barely ended when rumors were being
heard about parties that had lasted for three weeks without stopping.
5. Aer Martha and Tom had seen the Museum of Death, they realized that Mexican ideas
about death were very dierent from theirs.
6. If it hadn’t been for the Cuban Revolution, there would not be free healthcare in that country.
7. Henry would have gone to see the theater productions in El Chamizal if it hadn’t been for
lack of resources.
8. Kathryn bragged about being able to understand the opera e Magic Flute, but I knew she
didn’t possess even the most minimal knowledge to discuss it.
9. Pope John Paul II crowned and blessed the image of the “Patroness of Cuba” when he was in
Santiago de Cuba in 1998.
10. e musical movement known as La Nueva Trova, begun late in the 1960s, has gained
followers across the whole hemisphere.
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154 Answer key
8•16 1. Se construyeron muchos parques de diversiones en el sur de California en el siglo veinte.
2. Antes de que Alejandra hubiera visto las exhibiciones del Museo Nacional de Antropología y
Arte, no tenía la menor idea de qué tan grande había sido la civilización azteca.
3. Cuando los arqueólogos habían desenterrado los huesos del mamút, también encontraron
artefactos humanos como, por ejemplo, puntas de echas.
4. Nuestro guía turístico nos dijo que no tocáramos la exhibición.
5. Cuando yo era niño, me encantaba aprender sobre dinosaurios.
6. Si tuviéramos acceso al internet en este momento, podríamos hacer un tour virtual del
museo.
7. Hasta que Juana tenía casi treinta años, no había ido nunca a un parque nacional.
8. Mientras viajábamos por el parque de conservación, saqué una foto de un quetzal.
9. No pudimos ver ese bajo relieve porque se estaba restaurando tras un acto de vandalismo.
10. Los arqueólogos forénsicos emplearon yeso y barro para reconstruir la cara de un Neandertal.
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