Why preterite?

Shirley S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Why preterite?

Ustedes no existieron para pagar impuestos.

Hi, why is preterite used here instead of the imperfect? The preterite implies that Ustedes no longer exist.

This question relates to:Spanish lesson "Conjugate regular -er and -ir verbs in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido)"

Asked 2 years ago

Like0Answer1

InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Shirley

The actual sentence is a bit odd all together actually and that meaning of "existieron" is not a literal "existed", it has an extra meaning. Therefore, to avoid confusion I changed it to a completely different sentence.

Saludos

Like02 years ago

Shirley S. asked:

Why preterite?

Ustedes no existieron para pagar impuestos.

Hi, why is preterite used here instead of the imperfect? The preterite implies that Ustedes no longer exist.

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