Tenías/Tuviste muchos juguetes

Question

Buenas tardes,

I'm working on "Verbs that change meaning in the preterit" in the grammar section. The quiz gives you a sentence (in English) and asks you to choose a translation in Spanish using either the preterit or the imperfect. This particular sentence is: "You had lots of toys. (tener)" and I chose "Tenías muchos juguetes.", the 'imperfect' version. The reply: [Wrong answer. In an imperfective aspect tense like the imperfect, "tener" means "to have."] The correct answer, marked in green, is "Tuviste muchos juguetes."

I checked the conjugation of tener in case I remembered it wrongly but no, tenías is the imperfect, the answer talks about the imperfect, the lesson talks about 'have' (imperfective) vs. 'receive' (perfective) meanings and yet the correct answer is in the preterit, why is that?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I agree with you....

You had lots of toys = Tenías muchos juguetes

You received lots of toys = Tuviste muchos juguetes

That's a relief :) So it's probably a typo in the answer sheet. Maybe it'd be nice to have it corrected but I have no idea how to report it. - Manity, Mar 29, 2013