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Old April 04, 2013, 02:29 AM
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Perikles Perikles is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Tenerife
Posts: 4,814
Native Language: Inglés
Perikles is on a distinguished road
I was wondering why @Robin asked such an obvious question, until I realized that to be is irregular in the imperfect tense. The English imperfect has the form of 'was/were + present participle', so

cantaban = they were singing.

You would thus expect estaban = were being , but the being is omitted. I'll stick my neck out and say to be is the only verb that does that.

(This refers to to be as the main verb, not an auxiliary in the passive voice as in 'the guests were being asked to leave')

Crystal clear?
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