Cómo se dice, "Two hours passed..."?

Question

I had a question regarding the preterit and imperfect forms of pasar. To say something like, "two hours passed slowly," would it be correct to use the imperfect or preterit form? "dos horas pasaban lentamente." o "dos horas pasaron lentamente"?

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

''Yo esperaba en el cuarto. Dos horas pasaban/pasaron lentamente. Por fin, la chica me llamó."

It seems you want to emphasize the agony of waiting, so imperfect makes more sense and it doesn´t matter if you say "hours" or "two hours".

But you could emphasize even more, ie: Dos horas pasaban dolorosamente despacio. However, in the first sentence it would sound more natural to say, ie: Me quedé en el cuarto esperando.

You can´t really emphasize in the second sentence the slow waiting by using preterito but if the context were different, then preterito would work, ie: Pasaron dos horas y me fui pues en fin la chica no me importaba para nada.

Great explanation of both options in applicable contexts. Thanks. - rogspax, Jun 26, 2013

Great explanation indeed. I have to say I love the way "hard" and rigid disctinctions between the tenses (as per the textbook) seem to melt away before the power of context, of what you want to emphasize. :) - Manity, Jun 27, 2013

Answer 2

I might be wrong on this but my gut feeling is in favour of the preterit form. The two hours passed, slowly or otherwise, and you're talking about the result of their passing. Ultimately it depends on the context in which you use it - do you focus on the fact that two hours passed or is this something that's only setting the scene for something else that happened, etc.

Having seen your example sentences, I'd still say the preterit, mostly because the number of hours is specified which to me means result.

I think I'd go for the imperfect only if instead of "two hours" you use only "hours": ''Yo esperaba en el cuarto. Las horas pasaban lentamente. Por fin..." (notice how in English this sort of describing the setting would take the progressive too: "the hours were passing by slowly").

exactly. - rogspax, Jun 26, 2013

Answer 3

Without more context, it sound like the hours already passed slowly... therefore preterit is correct. If the hours are still passing, imperfect should be used

I would say imperfect in that case, and preterite, only if describing a sequence. i.e. first the two hours passed, then...blah blah blah - rogspax, Jun 26, 2013

Answer 4

Okay, so let's say it was used in a passage like this:

''Yo esperaba en el cuarto. Dos horas pasaban/pasaron lentamente. Por fin, la chica me llamó."

Answer 5

dos horas pasajeras lentamente

Answer 6

I would say.....Se habían pasado dos horas.

Answer 7

We're going to need a bit more context for this. One can envision scenarios where both could fit. What is the sequence and the time perspective? Can you write a full example sentence or three? (the natives love that help us seem to love that) smile