use of preterit and imperfect vis a vis 3 verbs

[macocael]

Originally Posted by M.A.R.

past, present, imperfect, perfect, aya yay!!!!!
just curious, Macocael where do u find the time?????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????

I dont sleep. I found it to be a waste of time. Ha! Actually, the light here is so strong in the a.m. I cannot sleep past 7am (though in the campo I sometimes sleep till 9 --dont know why, but sleep in the campo is more peaceful, and my neighbors there are not exactly quiet!).

But the knowledge of languages is all from a past life. As long as my memory holds, I will be able to post like this. I hope to improve my Spanish before senility sets in.

[juancarlos]

Lesley, you finally came to the rescue. I knew I did the right thing by invoking your name!

Muchas gracias.

[Sholly24]

Very excelent post. As a student of spanish, i have had some little confusion with Hubo and Hacia also. I once told my spanish teacher that "el tiempo hubo frio ayer" meaning " the weather was cold yesterday" but she told me that it should be "el tiempo hacia frio ayer". My teacher is actually from Spain and I know that there are some few differences between the spanish spoken in spain and that spoken in the americas including the DR so perhaps "hubo frio ayer" could be the same as "hacia frio ayer" in the americas.

Señor Ledley D, Do you have any takers on this?

Gracias por toda tu ayuda.

[Lesley D]

Your teacher is right 'hacía frío' (ayer) is correct. It does not matter whether it's Spain or Latin America.

Hubo frío does not exist because you are mixing two verbs. Hubo comes from 'Haber' and hacía comes from 'Hacer'. In Spanish one says 'hace frío' or 'hacía frío'.

Haber is used for weather expressions but not to express 'hot' (calor) or cold (frío).


*before someone asks even with ayer it's fine. There are exceptions to every rule as I mentioned in my first post. As well in Spanish regardless some verbs are used more often with the 'imperfecto' than with the 'pretérito' to express certain concepts.


PD. soy mujer.


-LDG.

[Sholly24]

Lesley,
I made a mistake in my question. Yes it was the verb hacer and it had to do with the use of Hizo and Hacia. I had told my teacher that "Hizo frio ayer" and she said it should be "Hacia frio ayer". I know that the imperfect tense is used when an event is happening when something else happened. For example "Hacia frio a la hora que mi amigo llegó" which means "it was cold at the time my friend arrived" but is it possible to use Hizo if I wanted to emphasize specifically about the weather yesterday and nothing else. That it was cold yesterday but today, it is no longer cold.

Gracias

[juancarlos]

I think you are correct. But Lesley will have the final word.

[Lesley D]

Your question makes more sense now that you clarified what you meant. Not 'hubo' but hizo vs. hacía and also your reference to the fact that your teacher is from Spain.


Instead of me commenting I would like you to ask your teacher to explain why. If your teacher said it s/b 'hacía frío ayer' and you have a query about 'hizo frío ayer' I think your teacher should explain why. I always do.

I will say this. Two factors come into play:

1) regionalisms and regional usage

2) grammar- verb tense usage el pretérito vs. el imperfecto.

You will hear both but I would like to hear his/her explanation because I certainly have mine.

These kind of questions always remind me not to take language for granted. Spanish is spoken in over twenty countries but only 10% approx. of world's total Spanish speaking population lives in Spain. Therefore diverisity is inevitable. Some aspects are grammatically logical and some are not. As well, Latin America is notorious for favoring the usage of the preterite tense for past tense usage whereas Spain uses the compound tenses more. For example the present perfect tense 'he tratado' instead of 'traté'. Ask your teacher how s/he would say 'have you eaten' vs. anyone from Latin America.

Enjoy what you are learning so far but beware of the vast differences you will hear. This is just the beginning of the ride for you. Hold on to your hat! Wait until you start to travel, study or live in any Latin American country you will then know what I mean.

Please do come back with your feedback.


-LDG.

[Sholly24]

Lesley,
Thanks for the explanation. I guess that I might not have been wrong as far as spanish in the americas is concerned which is very okay with me. My next class is on saturday so I will definitely find out from her, the reason for her choice and will get back.

Thanks
Sholly

[monsoon68]

In case it helps..as per my R.A.E. grammar:

"los morfemas aspectuales terminativo y no terminativo pueden incluir otros matices de lo que se quiere expresar.
Cuando partimos de una situacion en perspectiva de presente, como en Hoy hay concierto, lo que se comunica es la simple existencia en el presente de lo denotado. Si, en cambio colocamos los hechos en la perspectiva del preterito, pueden quedar diferenciados dos contenidos: refiriendose a la mera existencia en el preterito de lo designado se dira Ayer habia concierto; pero afirmando la consecucion o el cumplimiento de los hechos aludidos, se dira Ayer hubo concierto."

I think you can apply this explanation to "Ayer hacia frio" vs "Ayer hizo frio".

[Lesley D]

There are regional differences in usage as I stated in my previous post but in this case I am curious to find out your teacher's explanation of the usage (from a grammatical standpoint) because her statement was it s/b 'hacía frío ayer' which I find interesting without an explanation.

Your teacher is not wrong BTW but if I were your teacher I would have explained it to you right away because there is a part II explanation for the usage of 'ayer' as a past tense marker. My first post exemplifies one grammatical usage and part II is a specific usage which I am hoping your teacher would allude to. Report back please.

Monsoon68- lo que dice la Real Academia es perfecto. Estoy totalmente de acuerdo. Gracias.


-LDG.