Where were you ?

Question

please translate to spanish where were you ?

Answer 1

As Luciente mentioned in a comment above, there are two ways to say "Where were you?" It is generally not possible to translate this phrase correctly without more information and/or a more complete sentence.

¿Dónde estabas? = The Imperfect past tense. This is used when there is no clear beginning or ending to a past occurence. It's also used to describe things a person used to do as a child, etc.

¿Dónde estuviste? = The Preterite past tense. This is used when it's clear that a past occurence is now over. That is, the event has a clear beginning and an ending.

(Someone please correct me if this is not clear or not correct!)

What if the trigger word "anoche a las nueve" was added? Do you still have the choice of estabas or estuviste? - sbontrager, FEB 18, 2016

Answer 2

¿Donde estuviste? ¿donde estabas? It depends what tense you want to use.

Answer 3

HI myname, please remember, correct spelling and capitalization are mandatory on this site

Answer 4

i want to use past tense ::::second form of the verb

Both "estabas" and "estuviste" are the past tense, 2nd forms of verbs. :) It depends on what kind of past (imperfect or preterite) you want to express. - Luciente, MAY 13, 2010

Answer 5

Hi Khan.

¿Dónde estabas? = Where were you? (informal)