¿Tuve o tenía?

Question

When you're saying how old you were in the past would you use tuve or tenía? For example 'tuve dieciséis años' and 'tenía dieciséis años'

Answer 1

Hi and welcome to the forum.

With regard to age and time (the hour) we always use the imperfect.

Cuando tenía 5 años...

Eran las dos de la mañana....

Answer 2

Mariana, who says age always goes with the imperfect.

The imperfect is used for telling time and stating one's age.

Eran las siete de la noche. It was seven o'clock at night.

La niña tenía cinco años. The little girl was five years old.

Answer 3

How old you were, or what time it was, in the past always sets the scene rather than describing an event, so it is always in the imperfect.

Answer 4

Normally it is used "tenía" because the action is lengthy..

• "¿qué edad tenías el año 2000?"
• Tenía 15 años

Cheers Jaime

Answer 5

I'm new to this (started learning the imperfect about 2 days ago!) but I think it depends on the sentence, generally though I think you use "tenía" because it was true for an entire year.

Here's the lesson that deals with the differences between these two tenses: http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/show/27

Edit: so I was wrong! Thanks for the information Mariana, who says age always goes with the imperfect.