What is the difference between "estuve" y "estaba"

Question

Yesterday, my friend from Spain called me up. I wanted to tell her "I was at the supermarket this mornihg". I said: " Estuve en el supermercado esta manayna", she corrected me by saying: "Estaba en el supermercado esta manayana". What is the difference?

Thanks

...mañana ... - LateToDinner, Aug 22, 2010

Answer 1

HI, welcome to the forum

She called you up and I gather you were not there??

Estuve en el super.

You are telling her what you did this morning. Nothing to do with her call.

Estaba en el super.

You are saying: Cuando me llamaste, estaba en en super.

When you called me, I was at the supermarket.

Answer 2

You didn't nail down the exact time you were at the supermarket.

Estuve - preterite tense

The preterit tense is used when describing something that happened at a particular moment in time.

Estaba - imperfect tense

The imperfect tense is used to describe past events that aren't easily defined as having a definite ending.

Answer 3

Look at this SD posting by our very own Marie... Preterite vs Imperfect