Choose the preterite or imperfect tense of the verbs in parentheses.
La semana pasada, Manolo y Aurora ¹querían dar una fiesta. ²Decidieron invitar a seis amigos y servirles mucha comida. Manolo y Aurora ³estaban preparando la comida cuando Elena ⁴llamó. Como siempre, ⁵tenía que estudiar para un examen. A las seis, ⁶volvió a sonar el teléfono. Su amigo Francisco tampoco ⁷podía ir a la fiesta, porque ⁸tenía fiebre. Manolo y Aurora ⁹se sentían muy tristes, pero ¹⁰tenían que preparar la comida. Después de otros quince minutos, ¹¹sonó el teléfono. Sus amigos, los señores Vega, ¹²estaban en camino al hospital: a su hijo le ¹³dolía mucho el estómago. Sólo dos de los amigos ¹⁴podían ir a la cena. Por supuesto, ¹⁵iban a tener demasiada comida. Finalmente, cinco minutos antes de las ocho, ¹⁶llamaron Ramón y Javier. Ellos ¹⁷pensaban que la fiesta ¹⁸era la próxima semana. Tristes, Manolo y Aurora ¹⁹se sentaron a comer solos. Mientras ²⁰comían, pronto ²¹llegaron a la conclusión de que ²²era mejor estar solos: ¡La comida ²³estaba malísima!
Summary
¹querían ► imperfect (background information)
²Decidieron ► preterite
³estaban ► imperfect (background information)
⁴llamó ► preterite
⁵tenía ► imperfect (always)
⁶volvió ► preterite
⁷podía ► imperfect (background information)
⁸tenía ► imperfect (background information)
⁹se sentían ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁰tenían ► imperfect (background information)
¹¹sonó ► preterite
¹²estaban ► imperfect (background information)
¹³dolía ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁴podían ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁵iban ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁶llamaron ► preterite
¹⁷pensaban ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁸era ► imperfect (background information)
¹⁹se sentaron ► preterite
²⁰comían ► imperfect (background information)
²¹llegaron ► preterite
²²era ► imperfect (background information)
²³estaba ► imperfect (background information)
Translation
Last week, Manolo and Aurora wanted to throw a party. They decided to invite six friends and serve them a lot of food. Manolo and Aurora were preparing food when Elena called. As always, she had to study for an exam. At six, the phone rang again. Their friend Francisco also couldn't go to the party, because he had a fever. Manolo and Aurora felt very sad, but they had to prepare the food. After another fifteen minutes, the telephone rang. Their friends, Mr. Vega, were on route to the hospital: their son had a bad stomach ache. Only two of their friends could come to dinner. Of course, they were going to have too much food. Finally, five minutes before eight, called Ramón and Javier. They thought the party would be next week. Sad, Manolo and Aurora sat down to eat alone. While they ate, soon they came to the conclusion that it was better to be alone: The food was very bad!
Explanation: whether the action happened only once, and it is considered finished, we use the preterite tense. Whether we are providing background information, we use the imperfect, because the imperfect sets the scene for a series of actions.
