Quote:
Originally Posted by Perikles
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?  |
I really asked that question because of the word order, in Spanish we say en la casa estaban también mis primos y mis abuelos, and a long long time ago I read something about it in English, if you want to highlight the complement, en la casa you place it at the beginning of the sentence.
My question was is it possible to say:
In the house there were my cousins and grandparents too.
If my memory says me right, I read sth about inversion too, but in this sentence I don´t see the way to invert it, because if I say
In the house were ( there) my cousins and grandparents too, it doesnt sount right too me.
Thanks Perikles !