Pretérito/Imperfecto

[mebemelissa]

I have a worksheet from my Spanish class with sentences that we have to decide which verb form to fill in, but there are a few I'm not sure about.

Velazquez generalmente iba a las calles y pintaba a las personas que (ver).
^ I thought this one would be preterite, but it could be imperfect because he saw the people many times...

(Ser) un día hermoso.
^ I thought preterite because it was talking about one day, but descriptions of the past are imperfect.

El Greco (estar) sentado en una silla y no (trabajar) ni (dormir). Me dijo que la luz (molestar) a su luz interior.
^ I wrote estaba because it was a description, but I'm not sure about that and I don't know what to do for the rest of them...

¿Ayudame?

[wrholt]

The central idea that distinguishes the preterite from the imperfect is completion (preterite) versus continuation (imperfect). My comments are clues about what else to consider when making your choices.

Originally Posted by mebemelissa

I have a worksheet from my Spanish class with sentences that we have to decide which verb form to fill in, but there are a few I'm not sure about.

Velazquez generalmente iba a las calles y pintaba a las personas que (ver).
^ I thought this one would be preterite, but it could be imperfect because he saw the people many times... (The entire sentence is about what Velázquez did habitually: he habitually went out to the streets, he habitually saw random people when he went out, and he habitually panted the people that he saw.)

(Ser) un día hermoso.
^ I thought preterite because it was talking about one day, but descriptions of the past are imperfect. (Are you talking about one event [one specific day] that has completed, or are you talking about what the day was like as the context or setting for a different event?)

El Greco (estar) sentado en una silla y no (trabajar) ni (dormir). Me dijo que la luz (molestar) a su luz interior.
^ I wrote estaba because it was a description, but I'm not sure about that and I don't know what to do for the rest of them...
(When El Greco spoke, had he finished sitting, finished not working, or finished not sleeping, or had the light finished bothering him?)
¿Ayudame?