📖LearnModule 5 · Lesson 11 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2 mastery + the B1 bridgeUnit 3 · The two pasts, mastered
Happened, or was? — the contrast
Module 5 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2 mastery + the B1 bridge), lesson 11 of 30: . On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
hacía buen tiempo
the weather was nice
ah-SEE-ah bwehn TYEHM-poh
yo estaba contento
I was happy (imperfecto)
yoh ehs-TAH-bah kohn-TEHN-toh
había mucha gente
there were a lot of people
ah-BEE-ah MOO-chah HEHN-teh
yo vi
I saw
yoh BEE
ella salió
she went out
EH-yah sah-LYOH
durante
during
doo-RAHN-teh
nosotros comimos
we ate
noh-SOH-trohs koh-MEE-mohs
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
The B1 doorway is knowing WHICH past: the imperfecto paints how things were (hacía buen tiempo, estaba contento, había mucha gente); the pretérito fires what happened (vi, ella salió, comimos).
Y también · And also
Test any sentence: could you film it as a single event? Pretérito. Is it the scenery behind events? Imperfecto. Durante (during) takes a finished stretch: durante las vacaciones.
Ojo · Watch out
durante (during, for) takes a finished stretch: durante las vacaciones. "For three years and still" is desde hace, which you meet in Lesson 28.
hablar, pretérito — the table
yo hablé · tú hablaste · él/ella/usted habló · nosotros hablamos · ustedes hablaron · ellos/ellas hablaron
ser, imperfecto — the table
yo era · tú eras · él/ella/usted era · nosotros éramos · ustedes eran · ellos/ellas eran
Do it now — on paper
Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with hacía buen tiempo.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out hablar, pretérito and ser, imperfecto in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.