How do you say "It was _____ing" in Spanish?
Don't you use the imperfect tense when saying something was ____ing? For example, wouldn't it be "La estatua estaba creciendo en altura" (The statue was growing in height) instead of "La estatua estuvo creciendo en altura"? Or am I wrong? Please explain, thanks!
4 Answers
There are two ways to think of this. One is to use a progressive form, as you have done using appropriately conjugated forms of estar plus the gerundio(ando/iendo form). I would use the imperfect form of estar with this, because it denotes action over time without specific limits. "Estaba creciendo".
Another possibility is to realize the imperfect by itself many times can be interpreted as "was/were. ......ing". For example, "La estatua crecía en altura" can be translated as "the statue was growing in height".
I go with the answer given above by noetol... in the context there is no mention of the time when the statue grew in height so you need to either use the imperefecto de indicativo ,,, estatua crecía en altura or if u wish to employ the progressive then u can use it with estaba
If the infinitive ends in 'ar' than you add 'ando'. Eg: Estoy hablando = I am talking
If the infinitive ends in 'ir' or 'er' than you add 'iendo'. Eg: Estoy comiendo = I am eating
I'm not fluent, so don't trust what I say too much!
Normally, the 'ing' ending translates to a 'ando' ending in Spanish.
For example,
Él está caminando. - He is walking. Estamos cantando - We are singing.
Hope this helps!
