Why is imperfect past used in this sentence?

Question

Entonces, me lancé al ataque. Era la primera vez que lo hacía en todo el combate. Ataqué con dientes y uñas...

The background is that the main character heard a voice in his head that he should became a dog in order to confront a ferocious dog (possessed by a demon) who was attacking him. He was only doing defense before, and now he started to go offense.

I wonder why Era and hacía are used here, instead of Fue and hice.

Besides the original sentence from the book, is any of the following sentence correct ?

Era la primera vez que lo hice en todo el combate.

Fue la primera vez que lo hice en todo el combate.

Fue la primera vez que lo hacía en todo el combate.

Sorry for not being able to provide longer context, as I couldn´t find an electronic version of this book online. It´s from El Perigrino.

Gracias,

Answer 1

Jas !

Era la primera vez que lo hacía en todo el combate

You take us vividly to the fight, the fight is going on, you do something, and you think "I've never done this before, this is the first time I'm doing this, I just hope it works". You are now remembering it and describing that moment to us.

Fue la primera vez que lo hice en todo el combate.

In the past, you participated in a fight. Looking back, you realise that it was during this event the first time you did something.

Era la primera vez que lo hice en todo el combate

That hice is weird. You set the scene with era, and instead of completing the description/narration of it, in the middle of the sentence, you realise that the scene is unimportant and change the focus to the "I did it!" bit.

Fue la primera vez que lo hacía

Now hacía is weird, you are looking at it as a completed episode and that hacía expresses that the action is ongoing. It just doesn't fit.

As always, your explanation really helps me understand Spanish. Muchas Gracias!! - JazSpanish, Apr 11, 2013

Answer 2

Imperfect past is used to express actions that are repeated, and I see he says "the first time" which means he attacked the dog many times. If he would've used fue and hice that means that he only attacked once. And the only one of the three that is grammatically correct written is the second one, because it's the only one that has the two verbs written in the same verb tense (past perfect).

Gracias. - JazSpanish, Apr 11, 2013

Answer 3

Ok I've been thinking about this and although, 'fue la primera vez que lo hice' was my first choice and seemed to make the most sense I do think both would be possible.

I think that the preterite 'fue la primera vez que lo hice' version focuses on the action itself.

But that the imperfect version - era la primera vez que lo hacía - focuses more on the situation or the setting rather than the action itself. A bit like 'this was the first time that I was doing something like this'.

Another example might be - La vi por la primera vez - I saw her for the first time (action, bam it happened it's over)

La veía por la primera vez - I was seeing her for the first time (this version puts us in the setting, an ongoing situation that quite likely will set the back ground for something else that happens next).

Just a thought

I see, the imperfect past has the flavor of English past progressive. Thanks Kiwi. - JazSpanish, Apr 11, 2013

Sure does :) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 11, 2013

Answer 4

To summarize Cogumela's excellent answer: The imperfect is used to set the scene and for background information and also if it's a long rambling story ( flow of consciousness type of thing) .

I agree, the hacía is the odd one out.

Answer 5

Why does using "primera vez" mean he repeated this action when it appears as though that's not the case? Why can't you describe your first time doing something without there being a second time? Hey, this is my first time saying FOO on this forum.

The preterite works for me so far. This attack is a specific action at a specific time and while there could be esoteric rules about imperfect because of the context, I have not seen them elucidated yet.

Please join with me and vote for Mr. Preterite. He will stop the spending. It will be the first time that it's ever been done!

Haha, you know I can't be talking about the USA. I must be talking about a man on the moon.

It is obvious that he did the action several times, because if he only did that once why use "la primera vez" instead he would've used la unica vez - Aztec, Apr 11, 2013

Answer 6

because it's the only one that has the two verbs written in the same verb tense

Fue la primera vez que lo hice en todo el combate.

I assume you mean the above option is also possible (in additional to the original one in the book). Can you explain further why the two verbs have to use the same tense?

Gracias,