Todos los días por ___ años

Question

I know that the preterite would be used in a clause like Estudié por un año, but would that definitive time frame still make it preterite with a habitual aspect added, as in Estudié todos los días por un año? I believe so, but I'm not 100% sure...

Gracias.

Interesting question. - 0074b507, Jun 5, 2011

Answer 1

Or you can just say

"Había estudiado todos los días por un año,

I had studied every day for a year.

and avoid the whole problem.

There is nothing wrong with the sentence as you have written it. aston is right that the context is important. For instance: Did you continue studying after that year, but reduce the study to twice a week?

Then you might want to use the imperfect.

If you never studied (whatever subject) again, the preterit would be more likely as it is an action that had a beginning, and a specific ending.

Answer 2

Wouldn't it become imperfect if it's done habitually? I'm not sure either but I'd go with imperfect (past that is).

Now that I think of it, it could be used as preterite as well, if the time frame was set. Specific times are always preterite.

Either one could work... I guess more context would help.

Answer 3

Just to add to the confusion, I searched for "todos los días por años" and saw the phrased used with BOTH preterite and imperfect. I can also see it being used with several of the perfect tenses as well. (I have studied every day for years, and, still, I don't understand it = Todos los días por años lo he estudiado, y aún no lo entiendo)

Answer 4

Good question. Isn't preterite & imperfect tricky? If I were you, I'd use preterite because a specific time frame is given.

I believe it's preterite, but I want some more clarification because I'm often wrong... and yeah that's the reason I see too. - someone09, Jun 4, 2011

That sounds like the right choice to me! - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 4, 2011