what is the difference between tuve and tenía

Question

what is the difference between tuve and tenía

Answer 1

Tuve is past completed and tenía is past continual.

I hope I used the correct words to explain.

It's like--> Comí--> I ate Comía--> I was eating

great example...actually showed me how to better explain things =) thanks - DJ_Huero, OCT 8, 2009

Answer 2

In a nutshell:

Tuve is the first person singular conjugation of the verb "tener". It is conjugated in the simple past (pretérito simple).

Tenía Tuve is the first person singular conjugation of the verb "tener". It is conjugated in the continuous past (pasado imperfecto).

Spanish makes a difference between actions that actually lasted in the past and those which happened in a precise moment and ended. This is what we call in Linguistics an "aspectual" difference.

Thus:

• Simple Past: "Comí una manzana" is not described as stretching in the time line. It started and it ended and we see the event as completed (telic). I ate an apple

• Continuos Past: "Comía manzanas", on the contrary, indeed seems to last for a given amount of minutes/hours and we simply do not care weather it ended or not (atelic). I was eating apples

This difference in Spanish is extremely hard to pick up since we have two completely different tenses for each aspectual case.

Answer 3

Tuve would mean i received and tenia would mean i had or use to have.

Vicente, please note that correct capitalization is mandatory on the forum. - --Mariana--, OCT 8, 2009

Answer 4

Yeah, tuve is past and tenía is the imperfect (past that is a continual action).