Estaba pensando si te gustaba la biología.

You could probably also change this to "te gusta," since people sometimes do this in speech in both Spanish and English, but strictly speaking the past tense is correct, I believe.

I agree 100% with James, go with it

I agree with James 98%. I would say "Me preguntaba si..." Not that what James said was wrong, by any means, but "I was wondering" seems to me to convey a somewhat stronger sense of doubt (of considering alternatives) than "I was thinking"/"estaba pensando".

James Santiago said:

Estaba pensando si te gustaba la biología.You could probably also change this to "te gusta," since people sometimes do this in speech in both Spanish and English, but strictly speaking the past tense is correct, I believe.

Hi James, have a question here. Why did you use "gustaba" - past imperfect tense, not "gustó" - past tense?

Thank you,

Marco

Marco wrote:
Hi James, have a question here. Why did you use "gustaba" - past imperfect tense, not "gustó" - past tense'

Because the liking of biology was not a discrete event that happened and then was over, which is what the preterit indicates. If they were talking about a movie they watched in biology class, then the preterit would be called for.

James Santiago said:

Marco wrote:Hi James, have a question here. Why did you use "gustaba" - past imperfect tense, not "gustó" - past tense'Because the liking of biology was not a discrete event that happened and then was over, which is what the preterit indicates. If they were talking about a movie they watched in biology class, then the preterit would be called for.

Thank you, James for your reply. That reminded me about the topic for the difference between past tense and past imperfect tense that we were talking about before.
Your reply makes me more clear about this difference.

By the way, James. You said you live in San Francisco area. Where do you live?

Thank you,

Marco

AiFoS said:

Hola

A mi me parecen poco naturales las opciones anteriores.

Yo escribiría: "Me pregunto si te gusta la biología".

Huy, ahora me doy cuenta de que no está conjugado en presente. Hagan caso omiso, por favor.

Me gusta la opción de James, porque "Me preguntaba si te gustaba la biología" suena cacófono.

Hi AiFoS
No puedo encontrar cacófono en el diccionario. ¿Es igual la palabra cacofónico'

AiFoS said:

Hola

A mi me parecen poco naturales las opciones anteriores.

Yo escribiría: "Me pregunto si te gusta la biología".

Huy, ahora me doy cuenta de que no está conjugado en presente. Hagan caso omiso, por favor.

Me gusta la opción de James, porque "Me preguntaba si te gustaba la biología" suena cacófono.

I find this confusing. First you said "Yo escribiría: 'Me pregunto si te gusta la biología'. but you added that you found "'Me preguntaba si te gustaba la biología' suena cacófono" sounded ugly to you. Is your objection to the substitution of ""preguntar" for "pensar" or does it have to do with the tenses involved. I still like "preguntar" for the reason put forth in my earlier reply but if it is, indeed, cacophonic, I would appreciate some further explanation.

P.S. Upon further consideration, I would have, indeed, preferred "Me preguntaba si te gusta..." but I was concentrating on the preguntar/pensar distinction.

Samdie, "to wonder" is often difficult to translate in other languages. That is certainly the case in Japanese. If you think about it, you'll realize that we took a noun, wonder, which means a marvel that evokes awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration, and we used it by saying "It is a wonder to me that...," and eventually we made it into a verb. At first it was used only in its original sense ("I wonder at the size of that pyramid," meaning "I am amazed by the size"), but the meaning expanded to include merely contemplating the possibility of something. It's a very handy verb, but it isn't surprising that it doesn't exist in other languages.

And while "me pregunto" is indeed used in natural Spanish, I don't believe it is exactly the same as "I wonder," and it certainly is not used in anywhere near the frequency of the English phrase. In fact, I sometimes wonder (!) if English influence hasn't increased the use of this phrase.

AiFoS is a native Spanish speaker, and therefore certainly knows better than I what sounds best, but I do know that "pensar si..." is often used in contexts where "wonder if..." would be used in English. If you analyze "to wonder," you see that it really means "to think about whether," which is what that Spanish means.

Me pregunto, si te gusta la biología or you can say this
¿ te gusta la biologia'... do you like biology'

James Santiago said:

Samdie, "to wonder" is often difficult to translate in other languages. That is certainly the case in Japanese. If you think about it, you'll realize that we took a noun, wonder, which means a marvel that evokes awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration, and we used it by saying "It is a wonder to me that...," and eventually we made it into a verb. At first it was used only in its original sense ("I wonder at the size of that pyramid," meaning "I am amazed by the size"), but the meaning expanded to include merely contemplating the possibility of something. It's a very handy verb, but it isn't surprising that it doesn't exist in other languages. And while "me pregunto" is indeed used in natural Spanish, I don't believe it is exactly the same as "I wonder," and it certainly is not used in anywhere near the frequency of the English phrase. In fact, I sometimes wonder (!) if English influence hasn't increased the use of this phrase.

AiFoS is a native Spanish speaker, and therefore certainly knows better than I what sounds best, but I do know that "pensar si..." is often used in contexts where "wonder if..." would be used in English. If you analyze "to wonder," you see that it really means "to think about whether," which is what that Spanish means.

Thanks James I have often wondered about this myself!
"pensar si..." as you explain it does seem to fit most circumstances. "To wonder" does seem to contain a hint of wistfulness about it that "pensar si" might be missing...but you can't translate every nuance of a language I suppose.