Questions on Exersice 5 in the Advanced Spannish Book

Greetings, I have some questions concerning the subject lesson: Question 1----The # 5 sentence is as follows: Tú _____ a Señor Mendoza hace mucho tiempo calor ¿no? If I understand the sentence here it says that "You have known Señor Mendoza for a long time, no? I had put in "conocias" the imperfect tense for cononcer in the blank. The book gives the preterite tense, "concociste". I don't understand why this is the case. The preterite is for a one time event or an event that has ended. Neither apply here. The person has known for a time, Mr. Mendoza, hence, why is the imperfect used here? Question 2----The # 7 sentence has the following: "El momento en que desembarqué del avión en Dubai ____ tanto calor que no lo suportaba" I had put in Tenía since the state of being hot continued for a time and not just when I landed, but until I was able to get cooling which could last for a period of time. The book gives "tuve" (preterite tense) as the answer. Please help here. Question 3---- The # 8 statement has in part "... ella ___ las direcciones ..." The answer given in the book is superion and NOT supo as I thought it should be. Ella (she) knew the directions.... It seems that the verb is being conjugated on the "directions" which is plural instead of ella, which is singular. But it is "she" that knew, so it seems that the verb saber in the preterite tense should be conjugated with respect to she? Thank you for your help, Henk Roelant

Hola Henk. In your first question, *hace mucho tiempo* means "a long time ago." Thus, "Tú conociste a Señor Mendoza hace mucho tiempo, ¿no?" means "You met Señor Mendoza a long time ago, didn't you?" In your second question, keep in mind that when a specific time is mentioned, such as "ayer," "el año pasado," or "el momento en que desembarqué," you generally need to use the preterite. Keep in mind, too, that *tener*, like *conocer*, often changes its meaning in the preterite. Thus, the sentence is saying "The moment I landed in Dubai, I became so hot that I couldn't stand it." (By the way, I think there's a spelling error in the exercise. The verb should be soportar, not suportar.) I agree with what you say in question #3. I too think the second verb should be singular, not plural. I hope that helps. I also hope it's right :D

Hello, Thank you for answering my questions. I still have a question on my second question. You mentioned that if you use phrases such as "ayer" or "el año pasado" one needs to use the preterite form of tener in this case versus the imperfect. I don't remember if the book says this and if it does, it seems that this is an exception to the case where one uses the preterite when it is a single event and not continuous. In this case, I "could" be hot for a while until I found cooling. Thank you, Henk

The preterite is not confined to single occurrences. It also is used to relate a series of past actions that occurred during a specific time frame in the past. The terrific grammar reference book *¡Búscalo! A Quick Reference Guide to Spanish Grammar and Usage* gives this example: "Sí, fui a la playa quince veces el verano pasado." (Yes, I went/did go to the beach fifteen times last summer.) Two other examples from *¡Búscalo!* illustrate the use of the preterite to indicate the length of time that something existed or occurred: 1) "Los dinosaurios vivieron en la tierra por más de sesenta millones de años." (Dinosaurs lived on earth for more than sixty million years.) 2) "Ella fue estudiante allí por cuatro años." (She was a student there for four years.)

Thank you for your help in this! Henk