Why is "estuve" used in this sentence?.
I went to a website that gives you several sentences for the word you want to use.
This sentence was included for estuve........"Estuve al borde de tener un ataque de nervios....I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown". The sentence doesn't state when, or if you are no longer on the verge. Estuve is suppose to show that something was complete.....So, why estuve?
"Juan estaba estudiando en la biblioteca ayer"....John was studying in the library yesterday.....This sentence clearly states when John was studying. So why is estaba used instead of estuvo?
7 Answers
first, i am not a native speaker of spanish, so please take my answer with a grain of salt. however, i had a teacher who explained this in a way i have always found useful for me as an english speaker, so i will try to forward her way of thinking:
also, it sounds like you have 2 questions here, really. but they have in common that they both revolve around the question of how the 2 primary past tenses (preterite and imperfect) are used in spanish.
i find the "complete" versus "incomplete" or "unspecified time" or "when" explanations don't help me so much in trying to understand the difference between preterite and imperfect. the way my teacher gave it to us, and the way it has always been easier for me, is to think of the difference between the 2 forms this way:
preterite: something that happened in the past, but once, at a specific point in time
imperfect: something that was still in the past, but ongoing. often translated "used to"
example preterite: i went to the beach (once, perhaps to find someone) / fuí a la playa
example imperfect: i went to the beach (we might say in english, "i used to go to the beach") / iba a la playa
Q1) estuve vs estaba
sometimes though, as in the great example you provided, the difference can be quite subtle. but if we pay attention to that sublety, we get a nice payback: more information we can unpack out of it -- and savor.
"estuve al borde.." (the preterite form) would mean that i was at that point -- or only that one time -- on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
what can we "unpack"? well, the listener / reader could assume, for instance, that the speaker implies that since it was a one-time thing, it was probably because of something external that had just happened, or some situation that was doing it to them on this occasion. now, in listening or reading, you'd be looking next for them to tell you what that external cause or situation was. for instance, "i was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of my sister's pestering."
"estaba al borde.." (the imperfect form), since it refers to something ongoing in the past, could be translated, "i used to be on the edge..". the reader could therefore infer that the speaker is making a statement about their general personality in those days.. we could also translate it "i tended to be on the edge.." or, a little more loosely, "i was often verging .." or "i walked around in those days verging.. ", etc.. the speaker is not so much talking about their reaction to something else (the estuve, above). they are making more of a statement about who they were or how they tended to act in those days, just in general.
of course, the context (the surrounding sentences before and after) can also provide even more clues.
what i personally like about the preterite and imperfect forms in spanish is that they are so succinct: we know so much more, just from a few letters' difference at the end of the word. it makes the language at the same time more efficient and more poetic -- perfect for a romance language! to convey these meanings in english we have to change the whole sentence -- often requiring us to stop and think how we are going to even phrase it. (of course, there are many ways that english is more concise than spanish)
Q2) estaba estudiando -- why not "estuve estudiando"?
the -ando is a "progressive" tense -- meaning that the action is ongoing. it's like our "-ing" in english. for this reason, it is, naturally, much more often (always?) accompanied by the imperfect form (which is also ongoing) than with the preterite (a one-time thing). so estaba (imperfect) estudiando (progressive).
however, could "estuve estudiando" happen? i have never heard or read this (but as i am not a native spanish speaker, i could easily have missed it). it's only a guess, but i'm guessing that if i did see it, i would have to conclude that the speaker/author is trying to bunch together all that studying into one point of time (even though it was ongoing) for some specific purpose s/he's going to further explain. maybe science fiction (a time warp)? or poetry? it is a virtual oxymoron ("a combination of contradictory or incongruous words" -- websters), the two together, so i'd be interested in seeing them together and learning why, as it is, to my knowledge, either uncommon or even non-existent. if there are any native speakers who have seen this, i'd love to know when/how it is used.
Just to tag on to the lengthy response given by our new forero, Mamífero, it may help to remember that the preterite of "estar" tends to mean that something happened to one's condition, health or mood. Thus, "estuve" in this case could be easily translated as "I felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown." In English this somewhat gives a "what happened" feeling, vs. a translation such as "I was feeling on the edge of a nervous breakdown." The fact that "estuve" is used here indicates that this was not an ongoing situation. The challenge is to try to convey that feeling in an English translation, since English is not always so clear as Spanish when it comes to shades of meaning with "ser" and "estar" in the past tense.
To confuse things further, an event that occurs in a scene set by an imperfect verb can itself set the scene for another event, even in the next sentence.
I was walking across the room when I fell.--was walking sets the scene and is imperfect, while falling is a specific event inthe preterite.
While I was falling, the door opened.--falling is now setting the scene for another event and is imperfect, while the new event of opening the door is preterite.
This example is rather contrived and could just as well just have walking imperfect, followed by a list of events in the preterite.
The imperfect tense in Spanish is used to indicate actions that a person was doing or used to do or events that were happening or used to happen.
In the context of the sentence you gave us there is nothing to suggest that the person to whom it refers was in the habit of being on the verge of having nervous breakdowns or used to be on the point of having these breakdowns. If that had been the case I would agree that the imperfect would be the most appropriate (Spanish) tense... to use..in this sentence.
However, in this sentence/phrase I believe that it would be most appropriate to use the preterite:'estuve' since it suggests that I was, not I used to be, on the verge of having a nervous breakdown ..a subtle but important distinction.
One final point the difficulty with so many English translations is that, for example, we only have one word for the verb 'to be' which can be translated into Spanish either through 'ser' or 'estar ' English so often fails to communicate the subtleties of the Spanish language.
I hope this helps 
i guess both estuve and estaba are correctly apply on that sentence..im spanish native speaker from mexico ,,so id use any of those words if i was in that situation,,,itd come to wich one would come to my mind at that moment..it could be any of the 2... suerte
preterite: something that happened in the past, but once, at a specific point in time
Don't get too hung up on the notion of a single occurrence. "El año pasado, fui a la playa varias vezes." This, however, speaks of events not what was "going on".
Disclaimer: my point is quite similar to what MountainGirl said.
The very fact that estuve is used shows you that the condition described no longer applies. And as for Juan, even in english, 'Juan studied' sounds much more final and complete than 'Juan was studying'. It sounds like the fact that was he was studying is not the point of the story, it's just something that was in progress at that time. Does that sound about right, or not?!
