sentiste vs sentí

Question

Hi all,

I´m trying to figure out how best to respond to a note thanking me where my guest said

Gracias por hacerme sentir en casa en tu país

I was thinking maybe,

Me da gusto que te sentías* en casa cuando estuvo aquí.*

but then started second guessing myself and thought maybe

Me da gusto que te sentiste en casa cuando estabas aquí

Darn, for the most part, I don´t have much trouble with preterite vs imperfect, but sometimes overthink it (or possibly underthink it) and just am not sure.

What do you guys think is better (and ideally, why?)

Also, now I want to know how to express ¨second guessing yourself¨.

One thing leads to another...

Muchas gracias.

Rogspax, I think I should just say ' De nada, fue un placer'. Easier.. - annierats, Jul 10, 2013

Answer 1

Sentí = yo (yo sentí), sentiste = tú (tú sentiste), but this sentence requires the subjunctive:

Me da gusto que te hayas sentido como en casa cuando estabas aquí. Se suele decir "sentirse como en casa", al menos en mi región.

Thanks, I´d meant to question sentías vs sentiste, but got so busy thinking about which past form I didn´t conjugate right anyway (I´ll fix that part), and then forgot the subjunctive. Argh! Thanks for the help. - rogspax, Jul 10, 2013

And to be truthful, if the subjunctive had occurred to me, I would have, apparently incorrectly, tried the imperfect and not the perfect as you wrote (we haven´t done that in class yet) so I´d have been doubly wrong. So much more to learn. Again, thanks - rogspax, Jul 10, 2013

Any time. - RafaelNoiret, Jul 10, 2013

Answer 2

Me dio gusto saber que te sentías como en casa durante...

Me dio gusto saber que te sentiste como en casa durante...

Las dos están buenas en este caso.

Thanks Chileno. Does the first part have to be in past tense to sound right? i.e. Could I be saying I´m happy to learn Now, that they felt at home back then? Or does that change of tense sound funny to the Spanish ear? - rogspax, Jul 10, 2013

No, not really you can use "me da gusto..." it only changes the moment in which you learn that he felt at home... ;) - chileno, Jul 10, 2013

or learned. - chileno, Jul 10, 2013

:) Thanks Chileno - rogspax, Jul 11, 2013