Estuve...?

Estuve...?
 

I have to write an essay for my Spanish II class. The only verb tenses we have covered are presente, pretérito, and presente progressivo. I am trying to say "I was late," as in "I was late when I left home" or "I was late when I arrived at school." Is it grammatically correct to say "Estuve muy tarde"?

In this case the translation would be:

I was late when I left home
Era tarde cuando salí de casa.

I was late when I arrived at school
Llegué tarde a la escuela (o era tarde cuando llegué a la escuela)

Nice to meet you.

I hope it'll be helpful :)

Yes, this is very helpful. ¡Muchas gracias!

You are going to have to use the imperfect tense as irmamar has said. Whenever you are introducing background to something else that has happened in the past you will use the imperfect.

i.e. I was doing something (imperfect) when something else occured (preterite).

Yo estudiaba cuando entró el profesor.

I was studying when the professor entered.

Gracias me ayuda;)

En realidad, en lugar de decir "estudiaba", es preferible decir:

Estaba estudiando cuando entró el profesor.
Estaba escuchando música cuando sonó el teléfono.

Es una acción (larga) pasada que se estaba desarrollando cuando fue interrumpida por otra acción (corta).
:)

I was late when I left home = Estaba retrasado/a cuando salí de casa.

I was late when I arrived at school. = Estaba retrasado/a cuando llegué a la escuela.

Retrasado o demorado. Cualquiera funciona igual.

En España no se usa "estar retrasado" para decir que llegas tarde. Una persona retrasada es una persona que no se ha desarrollado bien.

El autobús va retrasado o va con retraso.
Yo llego tarde, voy con retraso o me retraso.

Why can't it be..........Estudiaba cuando entró el profesor.... (it's an incomplete sentence but.....it sounds right to me. Would I be breaking a grammar rule?

Thanks!

Pienso que se necesita usar el verbo estar en este caso

Estaba estudiando cuando el profesor entró

¿No sé?:confused:

The reason is that an action in progress was interrupted. The progressive tenses are used to convey 'being in the very act of doing something'.

It's a matter of style to avoid it, but it's a right sentence, and to my mind, gramatically correct as well.

¿Y demorado? No, no es el color... :)

I believe that the sentence correctly written is Estube hasta tarde, I feel that the build of the verb wasn't the more correct without this word hasta, this word complete the sentence and sound well.