Indefinite or Imperfect?

Question

Hi, when saying something like "When she was in camp" do we use indefinite or imperfect? How about when we say "When she was in the 7th grade?" in this case, is it estuvo or estaba?

Thanks.

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It would be just "ducky" if you could give your gender and levels of English and Spanish in your profile. - Jubilado, Sep 3, 2015

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Answer 1

Scientific studies have shown that there are 7.3 times as many names for tenses as there need to be. What many of us think of as the pretérito is also known as the pretérito perfecto simple and as the pretérito indefinido and as the indefinido.

The rules regarding when to use the pretérito and when the imperfecto are not as clear-cut as we might like. In general, "When she was in camp" calls for the imperfect because it doesn't define the time-frame very specifically. But I'm sure that someone more knowledgeable than I could come up with an example where the preterite would be more appropriate.

I'm not answering the poster because profile is not filled out. I am answering you and gringojrf: Just because the word cuando precedes it does not mean that the verb need to be in the imperfect. I used to always say cuando estaba in Colombia but.... - Jubilado, Sep 3, 2015

sometimes it is correct to say cuando estuve en Colombia. Typo 'in - Jubilado, Sep 3, 2015

should be "en" in the first sentence.\ - Jubilado, Sep 3, 2015

I hope I didn't suggest that "cuando" requires the imperfect. - jtaniel, Sep 4, 2015

Jubilado I said imperfect not because of cuando but because of the lack of an indication of timeframe. - gringojrf, Sep 5, 2015

Answer 2

Indefinite correspond to the perfect preteritum or simple preteritum case, and I would say is the case used by default in English, for practical purpouses with the comparation with the Spanish use. The imperfect case will be used just to stress the unfinished status of the action in past. For example, "I was eating, but suddently you came", means in some sense that you stop Eating because of the arriving of someone. In english you have used the simple past (was) + progressive (eating) to construct the idea of unfinished action. In spanish could be constructed exactly in the same way, or if you want also using the imperfect past. So:

I ate ---> Yo comí (the act of eat was made).

I was eating---> Yo comía/Yo estaba comiendo (the act was interrupted, where comía is the imperfect past form of eat).

If you have the doubt of when to use indefinite or definite, It will just depend of what you want to stress. Hope this can help

Welcome to SpanishDict. Please add your language proficiency to your profile. Thanks. :) - rac1, Sep 4, 2015

Good explanation - 000a35ff, Sep 4, 2015

Answer 3

I agree that "When she was at camp." calls for the imperfect. "When she was in the seventh grade" is in my mind preterite. It is a completed and defined time in the past. But if it is part of a setting of a scene it might be imperfect. For example, When she was in the seventh grade she fell an broke her arm. The broke her arn would be in the preterite.

It could be estuve if answering the question ¿Cuándo pasó? Cuando estuvo en campamento. - Jubilado, Sep 3, 2015

Jubis, it would still be imperfect because although "pasó" isn´t mentioned in your answer, it is understood from the preceding question so you are still saying in effect "Pasó cuando estaba en campamento" - 005faa61, Sep 4, 2015

Answer 4

I have not heard of the "indefinite" form of a verb, but then again, I don't know that much. Can you or someone else explain it to me? Gracias!!!

Hi, Wink. Like someone said there are more names for tenses than there are tenses. The so called "indefinite" (referring to verbs) will not be found in any College textbook designed for English speakers. - Daniela2041, Sep 5, 2015