imperfect use
Hi, I have an argentinian friend, and she told me this sentence:
"y hoy me dijo que me invitaba a comer empadanas a la casa"
I couldn't understand why she used "me invitaba" and not "me invita" o "me invito".
like "and today she told me that i'm invited to eat empanadas at her house" or more literally "and today she told me that she invites me to eat at her house".
Thank
4 Answers
"invitaba" is referring to something in the past, and since an invitation occurs in a point in time normally it would be preterite (I think), so the use of imperfect appears to be setting the stage for something else as dyruse said.
One other thing. Third person verbs are very indistinct and without context are hard to interpret.
Me dijo = he/she told me.
me invitaba = he/she invited me.
There is no context to tell us that both the telling and the inviting are the same person.
It could be something like this: And today (he/she) told me that I was invited (the person doing the inviting is not clear) ....
Perhaps the invitee failed to accept or did not go.
Also, just like us English speakers, people are not always grammatically perfect. I say don't worry too much about the difference in the two past tenses. But recognize that she is clearly referring to an invitation in the past.
She told me she was going to invite me .. or She told me she would invite me ..
How about "She told me she invited me to eat at her house, today"?
Meaning, for you to go today or even tomorrow...(future)
Like "she was inviting me"
Would that work for you in English?
Another possibility was the sentence was cut off, perhaps? "And today she told me she was inviting me to eat empanadas at her house" ...then the rest of the sentence: "BUT something happened" (imperfect-preterite sentence structure)
