Verbos "especiales"

Following are a few rough examples of some of the verbs which "change meaning" in the preterite. Try to figure out which completion/response (1 or 2) best fits each example (a or b)

SABER

a) El examen fue fácil porque supe las respuestas antes.

b) El examen fue fácil porque sabía las respuestas antes.

El profesor responde...

1. "¡Ay, qué bien! ¡Qué buen estudiante eres!"

2. "¡¿Cómo!? Pero, ¿cómo es posible? ¿Quién ha robado una copia del examen? ¡Vamos a tener que hablar con el decano de estudiantes!"

Discusión:

  1. How do you perform a completed act of "knowing?" You find out the information. If you say this one in this context, the professor thinks you somehow got unfair access to the exam and "found out" the answers.
  2. Knowing as background; you "were knowing" the information. You had this information as background to taking the exam. You’re a good student.

So #1 is the likely response to example a) and #2 is the probable response to b).

 

TENER QUE

a) Yo tenía que entregar el informe [paper] el lunes, pero no estaba completa, así que....

b) Yo tuve que entregar el informe el lunes, pero no estaba completa, así que...

 

1. ...fui a la oficina del profesor para rogarle que me diera más tiempo para terminar.

2. ...lo entregué incompleto y saqué una "C-" en la clase.

Pista: He tenido que entregar...

Iba a tener que entregar...

Discusión:

  1. Tenía que–background to some other action. You’re setting the scene for something else. This falls into the category of "Okay. So. I had to turn in this paper, right?" You’ve set the scene; now you have to tell a story. Another way of thinking about it is, "I was going to have to…"
  2. How do complete the act of "having to" do something? You do it. "Tener que" in preterite really translates as "had to and did."

So, a) means there’s more to the story. "I was going to have to turn it in…" and that’s the reason I did what I’m going to tell you about now. In b), the preterite tells us that I had to turn it in on Monday and I did turn it in on Monday. There may be consequences that I’ll tell you about, but those will be things that happened after I completed the act of turning it in. (Sequence of events.)

TENER

a) En 1990, la sra Suárez tuvo diez hijos...

b) En 1990, la Sra Suárez tenía diez hijos

 

1. Nacieron entre 1975 y 1990

  1. Todos nacieron en 1990

Discusión:

The preterite of tener is really of limited use. It basically means "get" (as in example a) or be involved in/suffer/go through, as in "Pablo tuvo un accidente," "mi abuela tuvo un ataque cardíaco." In a), this poor lady completed the act of having all those children in 1990. In b), the children are background, already existing, when 1990 happened.

TENER

Yo no fui a la clase de historia el martes, y

a) Rosa me dijo que tuvimos un examen; por eso....

b) Rosa me dijo que teníamos un examen; por eso...

 

1. ...saqué un cero y voy a reprobar la clase

2. ...le pedí sus apuntes y me puse a estudiar mucho

Pista: hemos tenido/ habíamos tenido versus

íbamos a tener / *estábamos teniendo*

Discusión:

Hopefully the "pista" gave this one away. In a), the test was over when I talked to her, so it wouldn’t do any good to ask for her notes. As mentioned above, "tener" in preterite means "experienced, suffered, went through, etc. In fact, in some places a synonym to "tener un examen" is "sufrir un examen," even if you do well on it!)

In b), we mention having the test as background to my other actions–studying and borrowing notes. The action of "having" this test still looms over me. (By the way, remember that the little asterisks mean that the example isn’t technically correct–nobody would really use the past progressive in that context. That’s exactly why "teníamos" exists.)

PODER

a) Anoche no pude dormir, y por eso...

b) Anoche no podía dormir, y por eso...

1. me sentí exhausta todo el día hoy

  1. me levanté, tomé un vaso de leche caliente, y me puse a contar ovejitas, hasta que por fin me dormí a las cinco de la mañana.

There’s a relationship between poder in the preterite and "tener que" in the preterite. Just as you complete the action of "having to" do something by doing it, you complete the action of "being able to" do something by doing it–or, as in this case, you complete the action of NOT being able to do something by NOT doing it. So if I say "No pude dormir," that means I didn’t ever sleep and I’m probably tired now.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that "No podía dormir" means that I some point I did sleep. What it means is, "I was having difficulty sleeping, and now I’m going to talk about what happened during my insomnia." We might very well be left not knowing whether sleep ever occurred or not.

PODER

a) En California, podíamos nadar todos los días

b) En California, pudimos nadar todos los días

(Did we swim every day?)

Discusión:

Remember, "pudimos" is "could and did." "Podíamos," being background information, means the potential was there. It doesn't tell anything about whether we did or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some verbs that don’t "change meaning," but which are nonetheless often difficult for English-speaking learners:

ESTAR

Hablé con Jorge el martes.

a) Jorge me dijo que su esposa estuvo enferma...

b) Jorge me dijo que su esposa estaba enferma...

1. ...y por eso él iba a la casa para cuidarla (el martes)

2. ... pero el lunes ella se puso mejor

Pista: Jorge me dijo que su esposa había estado enferma.

Jorge me dijo que su esposa *estaba estando enferma.

Discusión:

In a), the act of being sick was is complete when I talked to Jorge (His wife had been sick, but was better.) In b), the action was going on when I spoke to him, so he was on his way home to his sick wife.

 

SER

Cuando tenía diez años, le escribí una carta al presidente.

¿Quién fue / era el presidente?

Pista: ¿Quién había sido el presidente? VERSUS

¿Quién estaba siendo el presidente?

Discusión:

You would only write a letter to the president if s/he was still in the middle of the ongoing action of being president at the time–so ¿Quién era el presidente? is the question that makes sense here. You are requesting background about the event of letter-writing.

 

HABER

Había = existence

Hubo = occurrence

What kinds of things do you suppose you use "hubo" for, compared with "había"?

Pablo se sentó en primera fila [the front row] porque hubo / había una chica guapa cerca de él.

Hace un año hubo / había un accidente enfrente de mi casa.

Discusión:

A good translation for hubo is "happened." It's pretty much exclusively used for events. So here we would have "Pablo se sentó en primera fila porque había una chica guapa cerca de él" (She existed; she didn't happen) and "Hace un año hubo un accidente enfrente de mi casa." The accident occurred or happened; it wasn't in ongoing existence. Accidents, misunderstandings, disasters, etc. are things that happen; our interest in them is usually as completed events.