Choosing between pretérito and imperfecto in a narrative
A B1 candidate writes a 100-word anecdote about a trip to the Black Sea. Her draft contains: «El verano pasado yo iba a Nesebar con mis amigos. El viaje era largo y cansado. Cuando llegábamos al hotel, empezaba a llover. Nosotros decidíamos quedarnos dentro.» Her teacher sees four underlined verb forms and must decide which are genuine errors, which are acceptable variation, and which reflect a misunderstanding of the aspectual contrast rather than a grammar gap. The exam rubric rewards coherent narration with correct foreground/background distinction. The candidate says she 'knows the rules' but chooses forms by feel.
1. Classify the four underlined forms as error, acceptable, or stylistic choice, with reasons.
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«iba» for a completed single trip is an error: the journey is a bounded event, so «fui» (or «viajé»). «era largo y cansado» is acceptable: description of background circumstances is a canonical imperfect use. «llegábamos... empezaba» is questionable: if the arrival and the rain are single sequenced events, both should be preterite («llegamos... empezó»); if the writer means a repeated pattern ('every time we arrived, it began to rain'), the imperfect is correct. «decidíamos» is an error for a single decision: «decidimos». The key distinction is bounded foreground event versus unbounded background description, not a list of verbs that 'take' one tense.
2. The candidate says she 'knows the rules' but chooses by feel. What does this reveal, and what should she practise?
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It reveals declarative knowledge without procedural control: she can state the rule but cannot apply it under production pressure. The remedy is not more rule explanation but decision training on minimal pairs in her own text: for each verb, ask 'is this a single bounded event on the timeline, or the scene/background/habit?' She should rewrite her own anecdote twice - once foregrounding events, once backgrounding - and compare. Practice should target narrative structure (scene-setting in imperfect, plot events in preterite) rather than isolated conjugation drills, because her errors cluster at the discourse level.
3. Rewrite the four clauses so the paragraph is coherent, and state the principle you applied.
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Model: «El verano pasado fui a Nesebar con mis amigos. El viaje era largo y cansado. Cuando llegamos al hotel, empezó a llover. Decidimos quedarnos dentro.»
Principle: the narrative spine (going, arriving, starting to rain, deciding) is a chain of bounded events and takes the preterite; the journey description is background and stays imperfect. This yields a clear foreground/background contrast, which is exactly what the rubric rewards. Note that the imperfect is retained where it does real work, so the rewrite is not a blanket substitution.