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Pretérito imperfecto III

Brief explanation of the use of the pretérito imperfecto to tell dreams and describe thoughts.

Gramática: Pretérito imperfecto III

B1 Spanish Imperfect past use cases III

Level: B1

Module 2: Medios de comunicación cotidianos (Everyday media)

Lesson 10: Películas y sus géneros (Movies and genres)

Teaching guidelines +/- 15 minutes

Audio and video

  1. We use the pretérito imperfecto to recount dreams in the past.
  2. We also use it to describe thoughts in the past.
UsoEjemplo
Relatar sueñosAyer soñé que estaba viendo la cartelera del cine y todas las películas eran de ciencia ficción.  (Yesterday I dreamed that I was seeing the cinema billboard and all the films were science fiction.)
Describir pensamientos Cuando analizaba la película dramática que vi ayer, pensaba que el género no era el adecuado para la historia.  (When I was analysing the drama film I watched yesterday, I thought that the genre was not suitable for the story.)

Exercise 1: Pretérito imperfecto III

Instruction: Fill in the correct word.

Show translation Show answers

analizábamos, soñabas, pensabas, soñaba, quería, creía, estaba, pensábamos

1. Soñar:
Tú ... que estabas en una sala de cine viendo una película de acción con subtítulos en inglés y el protagonista actuaba muy bien.
(You were dreaming that you were in a cinema watching an action movie with English subtitles and the protagonist was acting very well.)
2. Pensar:
Mientras analizábamos la la película dramática mis amigos y yo ... que la historia era muy triste y el final no era lo que esperábamos.
(As we were analysing the drama film, my friends and I thought that the story was very sad and the ending was not what we were expecting.)
3. Soñar:
Yo ... que el protagonista de la película de acción siempre actuaba con valentía.
(I used to dream that the protagonist of the action movie always acted bravely.)
4. Estar:
En mi sueño ... viendo la cartelera del cine y todas las películas eran de terror.
(In my dream, I was looking at the cinema listings and all the films were horror.)
5.
Cuando ... la cartelera vimos que la mayoría de las películas eran de terror y ninguna era de romántica así que decidimos no entrar.
(When we were looking at the billboard we saw that most of the films were horror and none were romantic, so we decided not to go in.)
6. Creer:
En mi mente siempre ... que las películas en versión original eran más auténticas.
(In my mind, I always believed that movies in their original version were more authentic.)
7. Querer:
Mi amiga me contó que siempre ... tener una suscripción a una plataforma de películas, sobre todo para ver las de género romántico.
(My friend told me that she always wanted to have a subscription to a film platform, especially to watch romantic genre films.)
8. Pensar:
Cuando eras niña siempre ... que las películas de ciencia ficción eran más emocionantes que las de comedia.
(When you were a child you always thought that science fiction films were more exciting than comedies.)

Exercise 2: Translate and use in a sentence

Instruction: Pick a word, translated and use the word in a sentence or dialogue.

1

creía

I believed

2

pensabas

you thought

3

soñabas

you were dreaming

4

estaba

I was

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