Preterite V. Imperfect Question

Question

The phrase "eran las cuatro de la tarde"(It was four in the afternoon) is in the imperfect tense, but why? It seems that saying "Four in the afternoon" is stating that it is a specific time-frame, and only happened once, so why is the imperfect tense grammatically correct? Thanks for any help, this is really stumping me.

Welcome to the forum , we want to help you so fill out your profile If you have a problem PM a mod Bienvenido al foro. Queremos ayudarle, entonces hay que llenar su perfil. Si hay un problema, envíe un mensaje personal (PM) - ray76, Jan 9, 2016

Answer 1

It is setting the stage: It was four in the afternoon and the wind was blowing when suddenly my hat blew off and a handsome stranger caught it and brought it back to me.

The first two verbs above, translated into Spanish, would be imperfect because they are setting the stage. The discrete events described later in the sentence would require the preterite.

:) - ray76, Jan 9, 2016

Thank you! - DylanReinders, Jan 9, 2016

:) - jrschenk, Jan 9, 2016

Answer 2

The general rule is, when telling time in the past, you use the imperfect. As simple as that. See "Panorama, introcucción a la lengua española 4th ed." Lesson 1.

Thanks! - DylanReinders, Jan 9, 2016

Sí, gracias. :) - jrschenk, Jan 9, 2016

I wonder if that is because telling the time or someone's age in the past is almost always setting the stage for something? ;) - bosquederoble, Jan 9, 2016