I have to write multiple restaurant reviews that use specific grammatical structures in Spanish. How can I describe each restaurant and some of its...

In writing your review, you want to be sure that you understand the difference between the preterite and imperfect tenses in Spanish. The imperfect is used for continuous action in the past, or action that went on for some time, and the imperfect can be used with words that express frequency such as "a veces" (sometimes), "cada dia" (every day, with an accent on the "i"), or "a menudo" (often). The preterite is used for...

In writing your review, you want to be sure that you understand the difference between the preterite and imperfect tenses in Spanish. The imperfect is used for continuous action in the past, or action that went on for some time, and the imperfect can be used with words that express frequency such as "a veces" (sometimes), "cada dia" (every day, with an accent on the "i"), or "a menudo" (often). The preterite is used for action that is completed in the past.

Some verbs you may want to use are ir, to go, as in "yo fui al restaurante" (I went to the restaurant), and pedir (to order), as in "yo pedi (with an accent on the "i") una hamburguesa," or "I ordered a hamburger." The types of verbs you might use in Spanish with the imperfect are, for example, "Yo comia (with an accent on the "i") desayuno a las ocho todos los dias," (with an accent on the "i" of "dias"), which means "I used to eat breakfast at eight every day." You can use the imperfect of "ser" to describe the restaurant, as in "el restaurante era muy bonito," the restaurant was very nice. However, to describe food, you generally say, "la comida estuvo deliciosa" (or "the food was delicious," with the preterite form of estar). Finally, to use a command in the Ud. form, you could say, "vaya al restaurante," which means "go to the restaurant" or "pida una hamburguesa," which means "order a hamburger."