Savannah C
Gustar imperfect vs preterite question? If I want to say "I liked the movie." which tense would I use? I thought it would be imperfect (me gustaba) because I continue to like the movie from the past to the current point in time, so its not a defined point in the past, but I saw a sentence where it was written in preterite (me gustó la película), so which one is correct? Thank you!
8 May 2019 04:00
Yanıtlar · 6
that depends also on what u r talking about, if it is a case of narrating it's acceptable if u use the imperfect tense, which would be Habiamos ido al cine, me gustaba la pelicula, pero no me sentía bien estando alli. u use imperfect tense in this case cause you are narrating, and also, it is something that took a period of time, not a point. However, if u just want to say that u actually liked a movie, just use past simple, me gustó la pelicula, you r not watching the movie right now, it is just something that u did, u went to see a movie, u liked it and that's it. IF you want a recommendation i would tell u to use just past simple "me gustó la película", even if u still like it, it doesn't affect the fact that u already saw the movie, u are not doing this atm.
9 Mayıs 2019
Hi Savannah, You are right in hesitating about using the past perfect to describe what you want to mean. Let's see with some examples some different situations and the tenses we would use: Me gustó la película -> Ayer fui al cine y me gustó la película. Me gustaba la película -> Cuando era niño me gustaba la película "XYZ"; la vi muchas veces porque tenía el DVD. Mu gusta la película -> Me gusta/encanta la película Crimson Tide, te recomiendo que la veas. Aunque casi me la sé de memoria, la podría ver de nuevo.
8 Mayıs 2019
Good question ! Well, the imperfecto is used to express an action that used to happen in the past. it's not connected to the present. If you say in English that you 'liked' the movie, that means that when you watched it you liked it, and you still like it. In Spanish, we express that with 'indefinido', that is, 'me gustó'.
8 Mayıs 2019
I understand what you mean about a not defined point in the past when you say "i liked the movie" but in this example, when you say "me gustó la película" in spanish they will understand that you still like the movie, from the past to the current time. Otherwise, if you say "me gustaba la pelicula" , you mean that you don't like the movie anymore, you likedd the movie in the past, but something happened that change your opinion about that. Me gustó la película - I continue to like the movie from the past to the current point in time Me gustaba la película - I don't like the movie anymore
8 Mayıs 2019
"me gustó la película" It's sound better and it expresses an action or description in the past that it won't happen again.
8 Mayıs 2019
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