Can someone explain the indicative imperfect?
This phrase- "Era sólo por hablar"- was in my Spanish today, and I can't seem to figure out what it would mean exactly... Is it something like "I was only for talking?" That doesn't make a lot of sense, though... Thank you!
1 Answer
"por hablar" is a phrase often used in the Spanish language. It means to just talk to talk. Like in English, when people are talking and they say "I´m just thinking out loud" or "That was a rhetorical question," they are saying that because they aren´t expecting a response or reply to what they were discussing. They are just talking to talk.
Therefore, the phrase "hablo por hablar" means "I am talking to talk." I am just trying to get something out of my system, or trying to say something that was on my mind without expecting a response or solution to my query/comment.
So the phrase you are saying, although it is in imperfect form in the past tense, it still means the same thing. "Era solo por hablar" would mean something along the lines of "It was only to discuss it/talk about it" or "It was just something to talk about." It means there is no right/wrong answer to what you were discussing, it was just something that was brought up to think about or get your mind moving.
If your question is more about the tense as opposed to the phrase "por hablar," then you can check out more information on imperfect past aka indicative imperfect here.
