Decía una broma....... why would you ever use imperfect here?

Question

Overheard in a Tvshow (Twin Peaks..... yes I found it in Spanish!) but I can't imagine "decía" instead of dije in that sense. Gracias.

Alba's answer is pertinent. Why *shouldn't* someone use imperfect to refer to a joke? You simply use the tense that the context requires, no? - Gekkosan, Sep 21, 2010

It seems like once you told it, you told it. Just once you told it, and that was the time you told it, that once. That's why i have a hard time seeing a reoccurence with it. But I guess I can see what you mean here. - jeezzle, Sep 21, 2010

Twin Peaks, ¡no me digas! :) - galsally, Sep 22, 2010

Answer 1

Maybe it was his favorite joke and he used to tell it repeatedly and it wasn't a one time past event.

Answer 2

What was the rest of the context? I was telling a joke when the telephone rang? I can think of situations where you would use decía.

Answer 3

Just as a matter of fact, we do not use decía at all, we use gastar with broma

Estaba gastando una broma...Gastaba una broma...

In any case, I do not understand the question at all, in English you would use a progressive tense too:

I was joking.

It seems jeezle isn't the only person who didn't fully understand the imperfect tense Heidi, see my post. :) - galsally, Sep 22, 2010

As Heidi says, we would use the past progressive in English too. I was only joking, I was telling a joke, etc. - --Mariana--, Sep 22, 2010

Answer 4

Decía una broma a mi querido amigo cuando las muchachas entraron la casa.

Answer 5

HI Saly, this is all reasonable, but I wonder why you are saying that, I can only think of using the same tense in English.

Hey, why did you say that to me!

Calm down. I was just joking!

Oye ¡por qué has dicho eso?

¡Solo bromeaba, solo estaba gastando una broma, solo gastaba una broma!

Same tense, same meaning, where is the problem?

Answer 6

Decía una broma a mi querido amigo cuando las muchachas entraron la casa.'

Pescador's answer is a great illustration for what I'd say in response to jeezzle's question.

'I was telling a joke to my dear friend when the girls came into the house.'

I only understood very recently that the imperfect often has this sense, and boy it helped me understand my novel more completely because like you, jeezzle, I kept asking myself "'why the imperfect here?" so many times.

It was actually Michel Thomas in his Advanced Course that explained it for me, I can't remember if Paralee gives that sense in her lesson, it's a long time since I did it! Possibly she did and I just didn't take it in effectively. See my comment!

Just wondering now whether or not it would also be correct to say it this way:

Estaba gastando una broma cuando ....

Any further clarification on that would be great.

I have just looked again at the relevant lesson, Lesson 2.1 - right from the start Paralee explains it beautifully, I don't know why it didn't stick. :( - galsally, Sep 22, 2010

I've taken Michel's course, and heard of the was use, but I still hold as well to the timetable that imperfect suggests because the was rule doesn't always work from what i can see. - jeezzle, Sep 22, 2010

Answer 7

That's the problem with learning the imperfect with the wrong approach: you can perfectly use imperfect for things that happened once, even if they ended seconds afterwards. It is the perspective that counts, not the fact that it finished or not.

Could you elaborate on the" perspective" (aspect?) that you are referring to? - 0074b507, Sep 22, 2010

I agree, I would love some more elaboration on this. - jeezzle, Sep 22, 2010

Answer 8

Same tense, same meaning, where is the problem?

For me, there isn't really a problem any more.

All that remains for me to fully understand it is whether or not there are certain occasions when one uses the imperfect in preference to the past progressive and vice versa.

Now I've made a search on this topic I found a link you kindly posted in response to similar doubts of a member, so maybe it will be useful to post it again.

preterite, imperfect, past progressive

Thanks again for all your hard work Heidi.