| The grammar
involved in past tense narration is actually quite complex since
it involves the combination of almost all the tenses in Spanish.
For a full mastery of past tense narration, you need to
have a strong grasp of the preterite
and imperfect tenses, and the differences
between them. Further, you will need to use the compound
or perfect tenses (combinations including HABER + past participle).
Also, the subjunctive will
appear--the imperfect subjunctive will be the most common, and
the present subjunctive will appear in direct quotes. The various
forms of the subjunctive are also employed. The concept
of indirect or reported speech
is also important. Lastly, you will also encounter the conditional
tense used for speculation and speaking about contrary-to-fact
hypothetical situations (as if it were... would ___ if it were
true.).
For the purposes of reading, you will need to be able to decipher
tenses that you may not have a grasp of as far as writing them
or speaking them. Fortunately, by the time you get to
the point that you are wanting to read a narration in the past
tense, you will be able to recognize the verb and identify the
person. The purpose of the tenses you haven't learned
yet is not very important in order to comprehend written Spanish.
The links above will provide you with examples of those tenses
when you are ready to look at them.
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