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husker

Jun 27, 2007, 1:40 PM

Post #1 of 3 (3248 views)

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Preterite

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Ok hee we go again but

I was doing a lesson on the preterite irregular verbs and one of the examples is:
"I wasn't there"
No estuve alli
my preguntar is why not
No fui alli

does this again fall in to the catagory of being temp. using estar vs es

jerezano

Jun 28, 2007, 8:41 AM

Post #2 of 3 (3229 views)

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Re: [husker] Preterite

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Hello husker,

You said:>>>>
I was doing a lesson on the preterite irregular verbs and one of the examples is:
"I wasn't there"
No estuve alli
my preguntar is why not
No fui alli <<<<

alli needs an accent on the i. Not there today because I am using a Mac keyboard and I don't know how to put it there.

my preguntar should be mi pregunta. Pregunta is a noun and preguntar is a verb. my is not a word in Spanish. my is mi in Spanish

to be in a location for some time in Spanish is estar estoy, estas (needs the accent on the a), esta (needs the accent on the a) estamos, estan (needs the accent on the a) I am, You were, etc. To be in a location in the past for some time and then have left (when is not important) is estaba, estabas, estaba, esta(accent)bamos, estaban.

to be in a location only once or at a certain time in Spanish is again estar. But fui is not the the simple past (preterite) of estar. That preterite is: Estuve, estuviste, estuvo, etc.

fui is from entirely different verbs. ser, as you already know and which indicates a permanent state of being; fui would indcate that that state is now over (how could it be?), and ir (which means to go. The context determines which meaning the verb has. No fui alli(accent) means I didn't go there. For ser I can't think of an example using fui, but Fue a las dos cuando la vi would mean It was at 2:00 PM when I saw her. But this is an awkward construction.

Did you learn the difference between alli(acento) and alla(acento) ? alli(acento) means a place not quite so far off as alla(acento).

Keep asking your questions here. Eventually you will get answers from someone more qualified than I am.

Adio(acento)s. jerezano.

(This post was edited by jerezano on Jun 28, 2007, 9:03 AM)

husker

Jun 28, 2007, 9:29 AM

Post #3 of 3 (3222 views)

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Re: [jerezano] Preterite

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Hello Jerezano,

I do really enjoy your answers as they are in a practical sense which, I me, is better that someone saying that I am using the wrong tense and going in to a grammar lesson. i was never a even a poor student in English so when they draw parallels in Spanish or try to explain the tense differences in English it makes no sense to me.

Understanding that visiting or being in a place once or a certain amount of time makes sense to me. The irregular verbs in preterite are interesting to say the least but things that I have heard are starting to make sense. Before I just tried to memorize phrases and then imitated their usage, and as you can tell, most of the time I was wrong.

You have given me an excellent thought as how and why to use fui etc. A snap shot of time over and done with thus "I was never there" ( I didn't go there ) verses "I wasn't there" but could be, so again it is a timing thing.

I know I need to learn to use the accents, and will, learning the vocabulary, usage and spelling hinder me enough. Yes it is learning to spell by using the accents and changing meanings. Slowly but surely.

Thanks