Termine asistiendo

Question

I feel like this says "I kept going" or "it kept going" instead of what it looks like it would mean "I stopped / finished going"

Mi familia estaba bien cuando pagaron la escuela para mi hermana. No podían pagar mi parte, no importara que, así que termine asistiendo con la servidumbre.

I wonder why they use preterite for pagar the first time and imperfect the second, preterite seems better for the second time too.

I wonder if they mean "no importará" there too.

My family was ok when they payed the school for my sister (for her tuiton). They weren't able to pay my part, it wouldn't matter(?), so I kept going there as a servant (maid but still got free schooling there).

wouldn't it be 'por' mi hermana? - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 3, 2011

Terminé - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011

Kiwi's right. - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011

This is straight from a book. - jeezzle, Oct 3, 2011

I think "para mi hermana" is okay. - cogumela, Oct 3, 2011

Very badly written book. I refuse to believe it was written by a native Spanish speaker. - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011

¿"pagaron la escuela para mi hermana"? Tal vez en España. A mi me suena muy raro. - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011

i agree that the paragraph is very badly written, I don't believe that it was written by a native speaker. - cogumela, Oct 3, 2011

Both "para and por" sound clumsy, actually. A native would say: Mi familia le pagó la escuela a mi hermana. - cogumela, Oct 3, 2011

Answer 1

Actually, I don't know where you got that text from, but it is strange, unnatural, and not quite correct Spanish. I'm not really sure of what it means, to be truthful.

One possible interpretation I give it is:

"Mi familia estaba bien cuando le pagaban la escuela a mi hermana. (Pero luego) no podueron pagar mi parte (or maybe "pero no alcazaban a pagar mi parte), sea como fuera, así que terminé asistiendo con la servidumbre."

In any event, this "terminé" does not mean stopped, nor certainly "kept going". It means "ended up".

So the gist of the text is something like: "My family was well when they were paying my sister's tuition, but they could not pay my part, no matter what, so I ended up attending with the servants.

Whatever that means....

Makes perfect sense, they went bankrupt. - jeezzle, Oct 3, 2011

Yeah, but how did the servants attend? Different school, or what? - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011

Answer 2

Hi there, Jeezz. I find the sentence to be very confusing

Mi familia estaba bien cuando pagaron la escuela para mi hermana. No podían pagar mi parte, no importara que, así que termine asistiendo con la servidumbre.

My family was ok when they paid the school for my sister (preterit, because they only had to pay for the school once, whereas the family was okay as long as "your sister education".

I can't understand the bit "No importara que" In fact, I'd say that it's not correct. "No importaba cuál", for example, would be correct for "no matter what (kind of education)"

.. así que terminé (with tilde, otherwise it's subjunctive and it does not make sense) ...so I ended up attending school with the servants.

Ah it makes sense with the tilde. - jeezzle, Oct 3, 2011

There. Nicely put, Cogu. - Gekkosan, Oct 3, 2011