Empezastes

Question

I was reading a Comcast mailing that I had saved from several months ago, and it had interviews of Hanley Ramirez and Tony Gonzalez that each started with this sentence:

¿Cuándo empezastes a jugar?

I can find this addressed twice in prior threads here: dijistes, cavastes

The consensus seeming to be that it is not proper grammar, but still used to some extent.

Wikipedia Spanish verbs

Has a table about 1/3 down that lists:

tú -aste(s) -iste(s) -iste(s)

So my question is, given that it seems to be in published mailings, and listed as an option by Wikipedia, how common is it really, how unacceptable is it really, and does acceptance vary regionally (or is it just Spanglish).

Answer 1

Great question. Wikipedia and most web articles are not reviewed by experts and can contain mistakes. When in doubt, it's better to visit the Real Academia Española de la Lengua's website.

Dijistes, cavastes y empezastes are all wrong and unacceptable verb conjugations in Spanish. It does not matter how frequently they're used on the web. They are definitely not Spanglish. Their use just shows lack of mastery and/or poor education.

Well said ¡ - Dakie, Jan 26, 2011

Thanks, it just seemed a bit odd that someone would use it in a mailing from a national corporation. - Stadt, Jan 26, 2011