Pretérito vs imperfecto sentences

Question

Mi madre nos pidió ayuda para hacer la limpieza semanal. Yo pasé la aspiradora por la alformbra de la sala. Mis hermanos lavaron la ropa sucia y tía Eugenia quitó el polvo de los muebles. Entre todos quitaron las cortinas y limpiaba las ventanas. Cuando mi madre terminó, estaba demasiado cansada para cocinar. Entonces mis hermanos y mi tía Eugenia fueron al restaurante. Are the underlined/bold words right?

Answer 1

For Daniela and JulianChivi:

It sounds bad for you, because it is incorrect.

1) You can´t use (at least in that way) the "preterito perfecto simple" and "preterito imperfecto" in the same sentence for the same subject. The sentence is strange, because you are saying that they finished to remove the curtains but she was cleaning the windows in that moment.

2) The subject of the sentence is "3º person of the plural" (quit-áron) and in the same sentence changes to "3º person of the singular" (Lav-aba). So, it is not correct, because you can say that only if you add the subject:

Entre todos quitaron las cortinas y limpiaba las ventanas (NOT CORRECT)

Entre todos quitaron las cortinas mientras ella limpiaba las ventanas

or another option changing the second verb tense

Entre todos quitaron las cortinas para que ella limpiara las ventanas

I have been discussing with a friend about the subject in that sentence, because it is strange for us. I think that the subject is "ellos" and "entre todos" works as an adverb. But I can´t affirm it.

Answer 2

I agree with Daniela, the curtain sentence is confusing. I think the curtains were removed to be able to clean the windows, so in this case you need the infinitive of the second verb: para limpiar las cortinas or if all you guys washed the curtains: y limpiamos las cortinas.

In either case limpiar should not be imperfect because you are recounting actions that have started and finished.

However, because you say Entre todos, that tells me that you were part of the window cleaning as well. With this in mind, quitar must conjugated as quitamos.

Answer 3

"Entre todos quitaron las cortinas a limpiaba las ventanas. I'm not quite sure who the "subject" or "subjects" of the sentence here is/are. You have one plural "quitaron" and one singular "limpiaba" and --more confusing, one in the preterite and one in the imperfect.

Sometimes I ask my students to tell me in English what they were trying to get across and I will try to help them to get the matter straightened out. The rest of your paragraph. looks OK to me. But i've been known to miss things.