Page 504 - diccionario

502 SPANISH GRAMMAR / GRAMÁTICA ESPAÑOLA
2) I bought a shirt yesterday. Compré una camisa ayer.
It rained last Wednesday. Llovió el miércoles pasado.
The imperfect is used for past actions which on for some time, happened repeatedly, or were going on when a completed action (simple past)
took place. So, in the sentence ´I was reading when John knocked at the door´, ´I was reading is the imperfect as it was going on during the
time that ´John knocked´. The imperfect is expressed in English as ´I was buying, ´I bought´(on several occasions) or ´I used to buy´.
I compraba comía vivía
you (inf) comprabas comías vivías
she/he/it/you (polite) compraba comía vivía
we comprábamos comíamos vivíamos
you (plu, inf) comprabais comiáis vivíais
They/you (plu, polite) compraban comían vivían
We were living together in Scotland. Vivíamos juntos en Escocia.
They ate all day. Comían todo el día.
You (plu, inf) bought vegetables every week Comprabais verduras todas las semanas.
3) The present perfect is used for a completed past actino which implies a strong connection with the present. It is formed with the verb haber (´to
have´) plus the past participle.
An example of the present perfect in English is ´I have bought¨- the verb ´have´ plus the past participle of ´to buy´. Generally, to create the past
participle for –ar verbs you add –ado to the stem; for –er and –ir verbs the past participle is the stem plus –ido. For exceptions, refer to the vocabulary.
Comprar ´to buy´ becomes comprado ´bought´
Comer ´to eat´ becomes comido ´ate´
Vivir ´to live´ becomes vivido ´lived´
The Subjunctive Tense
The subjunctive is frequently used in Spanish, unlike English, and is therefore often ignored or misused. You won´t be misunderstood if you don’t use
the subjunctive but is worth trying to learn the básicas. The subjunctive form is used in Spanish to denote unreality, doubt or desire.
compres I compre coma viva
you (inf) comas vivas
she/he/it/you (polite) compre coma viva
we compremos comamos vivamos
you (plu, inf) compreis comais vivais
They/you (plu, polite) compren coman vivan
I don’t want that to happen. I hope he comes. I doubt we´ll eat early tonight. The Gerund
No quiero que suceda esto.
Espero que venga.
Dudo que cenemos pronto esta noche.
The gerund is that verb which, in English, is portrayed by the addition of ´-ing´to the verb stem. In Spanish, the equivalent is –ando for the –ar verbs,
and –endo for both the –er and –ir verbs, and they are used with the verb estar.