Verbs that change meaning between Pret. & Imp.

[ducviloxi]

The following verbs change meaning when used in the Preterite and Imperfect.

quiero -> quise : I tried, no quise : I refused, quería : I wanted



Yo quise ver el volcan pero estaba muy nublado (I tried to see the volcano but it was too cloudy)
no quise comer el almuerzo (I refused to eat lunch)
Yo quería ver el volcan pero no hubo transportacion debido al feriado (I wanted to see the volcano but there was no transportation due to the holiday)


saber -> supe : I learned, sabía : I knew (a fact)



Yo supe leer el Frances cuando tenía cinco años (I learned to read French when I was 5 years old)
Yo sabía poco español antes de me llegué en el sudamerica (I knew a little spanish before I arrived in south america)


conocer -> conocí : I met, conocía : I knew (person/place)



le Conocí ayer en la calle (I met him yesterday on the street)
ya conocía este lugar (I already knew this place)


poder -> pudo : ?? , podía : ?? (don't know how to exactly differentiate this... some texts say pudo means "succeeded" and podía means "was able to"



pudo traer mi maleta en el vuelo (I succeeded [to bring -> in bringing] my bag on the flight
podía entenderlo pero con dificilmente (I was able to understand it but with difficulty)


tener -> tuvo : I received, tenía : I had



tuvo un regalo este año (I recieved a gift this year)
tenía un coche durante el mes de marzo (I had a car during the month of march)


Are these translations all correct?

Reference: I am using this site as a reference, thanks..
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/pretimp3.htm

Thanks much!!

[aleCcowaN]

I only can agree -but not completely- about saber.

Your use of quise and tuve look like English verbs rendered in Spanish, and probably immigrants in the US could speak that way.

With conocí and conocía there is no change in meaning, it's just you got acquainted with somebody first time you met the person.

[ducviloxi]

thanks I added some sample sentences to highlight what I am trying to understand :) If supe means "I learned" then how is it different from "aprendé"?

Yo supe leer Francés
Yo aprendí leer Francés

¿Ambas oraciones son iguales?

y "quise" -> "intenté" -> tried, ¿son iguales?

[aleCcowaN]

Yo supe leer francés ---> it means "yo solía leer francés" in popular and regional register

If you meant "yo supe (y sigo sabiendo) leer francés", it means "I knew how to read French". Certainly you had to learn ("aprendí a leer francés") how to do that, but it doesn't mean they are the same.

quise cruzar la calle ---> I tried to cross the street / I intended to cross the street / I wanted to cross the street

quise cruzar la calle y no pude ---> I tried to cross the street, but I couldn't.
quería cruzar la calle pero no me dejaron ---> I wanted to cross the street but they didn't allow me.
quise cruzar la calle pero me detuvieron ---> I intended to cross the street but they arrested me.

I think the last ones are examples of what you are asking here, but we may swap the cases and it would be still OK (quise cruzar la calle y no podía, quise cruzar la calle pero no me dejaron, quise cruzar la calle pero no me dejaban). It's the second part of the sentence what allows to get the intended meaning and not specifically imperfect or simple preterite, though "to want" is better described with imperfect as such action has blurry beginning and end, and "to try" is better described with past simple, as it is an action that clearly starts and ends. But you could also use "quería cruzar la calle" (I tried to cross the street), if you tried several times but didn't succeed, or until you finally succeeded.

[wrholt]

(Yo) supe leer francés:bad:
(Yo) aprendí leer francés:good:



"*Supe leer francés" is very strange. The preterite of "saber" describes the moment of transition between not knowing some fact at one moment to knowing the fact completely the next moment.

"Leer francés" isn't a fact that one learns about in a moment, it's a skill that one acquires over time with a lot of effort. "*Supe leer francés" suggests that you went from not knowing how to to read French at all one moment to knowing how to read French perfectly in the next moment.

[aleCcowaN]

Yes, "supe leer francés" has a dash of our fairy godmother touching us with her magic wand and we knowing how to read French all of a sudden. However we might make careful use of it to describe the result of "haber aprendido", though there's a specific verbal periphrasis to do that, "llegar a + verb": "llegué a saber leer en francés". That's why it's easier to understand "saber" as "soler" in that context.

Anyway I think that ducviloxi has detected some meaning patterns according to the type of preterite we use and certainly I could have taken h** verbs of choice and created a lot of examples that would confirmed that pattern or destroyed it completely. One of the ways to do it is playing with imperfect as giving contextual information or describing a context where some specific action is done repeatedly.

In the end, here it's hiding the different nature of English and Spanish as languages -and why learning them is worthwhile-, as English depends more on the right choice of vocabulary while Spanish can reuse the same lexicon as its complex grammar acts as a nuance giver and meaning selector. And about ducviloxi's question, there's no "shortcut" in learning long lists of collocations involving mood-aspect choices and meanings -only as a basting to hold together pieces of information used later for a deep reflection about the things to be learned- but the need to practice mood-aspect-subject-clause selection before choosing the words, as that's the way we natives use.