Oraciones con el imperfecto

[laepelba]

In this exercise, questions were given to which I was supposed to give an answer. The chapter is on the imperfect tense, so I assume that they wanted me to use the imperfect tense in my answer. I will give the question and my answer. Any corrections would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

1) ¿Qué hacías ayer mientras trabajabas?
Mientras trabajaba, enseñaba estudiantes.

2) ¿Qué sañaste cuando dormías?
Cuando dormía, soñé con la nieve.
(Note, I wasn't sure if I should answer the question with soñar in the imperfect or preterit, as the question used the preterit, but it seems like a good situation for the imperfect. What should I have done?)

3) ¿Qué anunciaron mientras escuchabas la radio?
Mientras escuchaba la radio, anunciaron que Ohno ganá la plata.

4) ¿Dónde estabas cuando sonó el teléfono?
Estaba en la sala cuando soné el teléfono.

5) ¿Quién te interrumpió cuando hablabas por teléfono?
Mi hermano me interrumpió cuando hablaba por teléfono.

[bobjenkins]

Lo siento para no contestarte pero es de



Tengo el libro que habla del subjuntivo solamente, pero ése me aparece muy bueno! Si es así compraré el libro por la sección sobre el imperfecto :/ , porque me confunde

[laepelba]

Yes, Bob - I think we've had this conversation. You recommended the book on the subjunctive to me, and when I looked it up I found the whole series. I got several of the books. I'm currently working on the one you pictured....

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Yes, Bob - I think we've had this conversation. You recommended the book on the subjunctive to me, and when I looked it up I found the whole series. I got several of the books. I'm currently working on the one you pictured....

Muchas gracias, no estaba seguro de que el libro sea el que se llama practice makes perfect, advanced spanish grammar

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

In this exercise, questions were given to which I was supposed to give an answer. The chapter is on the imperfect tense, so I assume that they wanted me to use the imperfect tense in my answer. I will give the question and my answer. Any corrections would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

1) ¿Qué hacías ayer mientras trabajabas?
Mientras trabajaba, enseñaba a (los) estudiantes.

2) ¿Qué soñaste cuando dormías?
Cuando dormía, soñaba con la nieve.
(Note, I wasn't sure if I should answer the question with soñar in the imperfect or preterit, as the question used the preterit, but it seems like a good situation for the imperfect. What should I have done?) Use the imperfect for the answer.

3) ¿Qué anunciaron mientras escuchabas la radio?
Mientras escuchaba la radio, anunciaron que Ohno ganaba la (medalla de?) plata.

4) ¿Dónde estabas cuando sonó el teléfono?
Estaba en la sala cuando sonaba el teléfono.

5) ¿Quién te interrumpió cuando hablabas por teléfono?
Mi hermano me interrumpió cuando hablaba por teléfono.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

Thanks for these answers, Hernan!

I see my mistake in #1 (personal "a") and the spelling error that I typed wrong in the question for #2.

NOW, what I do NOT get is why the following should be IMPERFECT instead of PRETERIT. Please explain:
#2 - Why "soñaba" instead of the preterite that was given in the question?
#3 - Yes, the medal. So why the imperfect (ongoing) instead of preterit (he won the silver medal at a particular time)?
#4 - Like #2, the question used the preterit. The phone rang at a given time. Why change to the imperfect in the answer?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks for these answers, Hernan!

I see my mistake in #1 (personal "a") and the spelling error that I typed wrong in the question for #2.

NOW, what I do NOT get is why the following should be IMPERFECT instead of PRETERIT. Please explain:
#2 - Why "soñaba" instead of the preterite that was given in the question?
#3 - Yes, the medal. So why the imperfect (ongoing) instead of preterit (he won the silver medal at a particular time)?
#4 - Like #2, the question used the preterit. The phone rang at a given time. Why change to the imperfect in the answer?

Because depending of the context several other things might be happening at the same time...

Isn't the same in English?

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

Because depending of the context several other things might be happening at the same time...

Isn't the same in English?

No. English is weird. Past is past is past... I dreamed. I dreamed. The phone rang. The phone rang. No such difference.

I still don't understand your answer (here) to my questions (immediately above).....

[irmamar]

I'd use another tense in some sentences:

3) Mientras escuchaba la radio, anunciaron que Ohio había ganado la medalla de plata.
4) Estaba en la sala cuando sonó el teléfono.

Puede que sea cuestión de costumbres.

[Ambarina]

Originally Posted by laepelba

No. English is weird. Past is past is past... I dreamed. I dreamed. The phone rang. The phone rang. No such difference.

I still don't understand your answer (here) to my questions (immediately above).....

Technically you can say "I was in the room when the phone was ringing" or "I was dreaming of snow while I was sleeping" though I think your exercise was about one action being interrupted by another in which case the preterite would be used, i.e. Estaba en la sala cuando sonó el teléfono; Mientras dormía soñé con nieve.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Ambarina

Technically you can say "I was in the room when the phone was ringing" or "I was dreaming of snow while I was sleeping" though I think your exercise was about one action being interrupted by another in which case the preterite would be used, i.e. Estaba en la sala cuando sonó el teléfono; Mientras dormía soñé con nieve.

In some sentences I thought like you did, but in the case of "soñar", you can say both "soñé" and "soñaba", there's no interruption here.

[tacuba]

Originally Posted by laepelba

No. English is weird. Past is past is past... I dreamed. I dreamed. The phone rang. The phone rang. No such difference.

Well, not really. The difference is that English uses a different construction to give the idea of the imperfect tense in Spanish.

I lived in Paris for three years. (preterite)
I used to live in Paris. (imperfect)

My brother ate at 7:00pm. (preterite)
My brother would eat at 7:00pm. (imperfect)

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'd use another tense in some sentences:

3) Mientras escuchaba la radio, anunciaron que Ohio había ganado la medalla de plata.
4) Estaba en la sala cuando sonó el teléfono.

Puede que sea cuestión de costumbres.

Well, unfortunately, the book has only covered preterit and imperfect tenses thus far, so the expected answers were to use either preterit and/or imperfect.

I also see that I used the wrong person in my answer for #4. THE PHONE is the subject of "sonar", not ME, thus sonó.

Originally Posted by Ambarina

Technically you can say "I was in the room when the phone was ringing" or "I was dreaming of snow while I was sleeping" though I think your exercise was about one action being interrupted by another in which case the preterite would be used, i.e. Estaba en la sala cuando sonó el teléfono; Mientras dormía soñé con nieve.

That is exactly what the book's point was for these exercises. An ongoing activity in the past, that was interrupted/punctuated by a specific event. That's why the example with "soñar" confused me. It DOES make sense to me if it could be either "soñé" or "soñaba" and be correct (as Irmamar points out, quoted immediately below).....

Originally Posted by irmamar

In some sentences I thought like you did, but in the case of "soñar", you can say both "soñé" and "soñaba", there's no interruption here.

See my comment to Ambarina.....

Originally Posted by tacuba

Well, not really. The difference is that English uses a different construction to give the idea of the imperfect tense in Spanish.

I lived in Paris for three years. (preterite)
I used to live in Paris. (imperfect)

My brother ate at 7:00pm. (preterite)
My brother would eat at 7:00pm. (imperfect)

Point well taken. Thanks!

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by laepelba

No. English is weird. Past is past is past... I dreamed. I dreamed. The phone rang. The phone rang. No such difference.
...

No it isn't. Germanic languages have two types of past tense formation - strongly inflective (sing sang sung) and weakly inflective (love loved loved). I won't bore with the reasons for this, but English is not alone. By the way, dreamt is also correct.

[laepelba]

I still say English is weird. :-P

[gramatica]

In some sentences I thought like you did, but in the case of "soñar", you can say both "soñé" and "soñaba", there's no interruption here.

In this case are they basically the same?

While I was sleeping, I was dreaming of...=Mientras dormía soñaba con...
While I was sleeping, I dreamt of...=Mientras dormía soñe (se termino el sueño) con ...
Thank you

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by gramatica

In this case are they basically the same?

While I was sleeping, I was dreaming of...=Mientras dormía soñaba con...
While I was sleeping, I dreamt of...=Mientras dormía soñe (se termino el sueño) con ...
Thank you

I think so

[gramatica]

Thank you very much

Now that makes sense

Regards

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

3) ¿Qué anunciaron mientras escuchabas la radio?
Mientras escuchaba la radio, anunciaron que Ohno ganaba la (medalla de?) plata.

4) ¿Dónde estabas cuando sonó el teléfono?
Estaba en la sala cuando sonaba el teléfono.

Originally Posted by laepelba

#3 - Yes, the medal. So why the imperfect (ongoing) instead of preterit (he won the silver medal at a particular time)?
#4 - Like #2, the question used the preterit. The phone rang at a given time. Why change to the imperfect in the answer?

I'm still not sure I understand the answers to my questions about your corrections to #3 and #4 above...