Preterite vs imperfect?

Question

Cuando yo tenía cinco años, mi hermana y yo conducíamos mis abuelos autocaravana Cuando yo tenía un año, yo montaba en bicicleta con mi hermana. Cuando yo tenía cuatro años, mi padre y yo leímos todos los días Cuando yo tenía nueve años, yo pescaba en el río de Kern

Are these sentences in the correct form?

Answer 1

Good efforts.

So, in general, regardless of context and exact intent here, that you´re not quite consistent with yourself. I.e. you use strictly the imperfect (and I think correctly) for ages 5 and 1 and 9, but mix imperfect and preterite for age 4. I would probably change leímos to leíamos, but it looks good overall. Just one guy´s opinion.

Cheers Roger

Note, in the last one, todos los días is pretty explicitly habitual, thus my suggestion to change to imperfect, leíamos. - rogspax, Mar 20, 2013

Answer 2

It all depends if it was an isolated, one time thing (preterite), or a habitual, recurring action (imperfect). In the first sentence, tenía is correct, because it sets the stage (imperfect), but I'd image that conducir should be in the preterite, as it probably only happened once, or at most a couple times. The same goes in the second sentence with montar, and with pescarin the fourth. In the third, leímos should be leíamos, because it was a habitual action.

Good answer. I don´t necessarily disagree with Mike, but these all sound habitual to me. But, if any were isolated occurences, then just as Mike says, they should take the preterite. Only you, the author, can know which you meant. We´re guessing a bit. - rogspax, Mar 20, 2013