Parecía or Pareció
How would you say "he seemed like he wanted to cry"?
Parecía que querió llorar.
or
Pareció que queriá llorar
Which is correct. Please also give reasoning for your answer. Thanks
3 Answers
Neither is correct, I'm afraid, because after "parecer", you need "que" before using another verb. The suppression of this conjunction is not optional, like in English. Regarding the choice of tense, both are correct... but they portray the situation from a different perspective, although "pareció" here is more unusual. All these combinations are valid:
Parecía que queriá llorar.
Pareció que quería llorar.
Parecía que quería llorar.
It definitely wouldn't make much sense if you said "pareció que querió llorar". In the first place you have conjugated the infinitive "querer" wrong in the past tense, it should be "quiso". Secondly, "querer" conjugated in the preterite tense means to try to do something but not be able to do it for some reason. Thirdly, you use imperfect when describing past emotional or physical states. Although you are talking about something that happened in the past, there is no focus on the beginning or end of the action so "parecía" would be the best choice given the context. You could use "pareció" if you were talking about an event that happened and ended quickly like: "For one second after Joe got slapped in the face by his girlfriend it seemed that he wanted to cry, but he immediately got over it."
The idea is to express that it seemed that he wanted to cry , and he didn't cry which would be an action that ended. I think that would be "pareció que querió llorar" right?
