Notar and Notice in English

Question

Hi everyone,

There is this sentence in a book :

No podía respirar, y notaba como si alguien estuviera tirando de mí hacia el fondo.

So in English, we use notice as "noticed" in the past tense and also (I think) to translate this sentence to English.
I mean we don't say I was noticing in English if I am not mistaken.
My question is why in Spanish it is used in past continuous tense (notaba) ?
Can you please explain me and tell me whether it is always used in past continuous tense in Spanish?

Thank you.

I might translate notar here as to feel- but it seems odd without a pronoun to me- me notaba (I was feeling as if), se notaba (it felt as if)- or something-- but I see on the Internet it is done without that, so I will have to defer to someone else. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 7, 2016

Thank you anyway bosque :) - AndréYuhai, Mar 7, 2016

Thank you for such challenging questions. If we get some good answers I stand to learn from it as well. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 7, 2016

Please add your answers to the answer box. Muchas gracias, amigos. - rac1, Mar 7, 2016

Ah, but mine was not an answer, simply a comment as to why I did not feel like I knew enough to answer. ;) - bosquederoble, Mar 7, 2016

Answer 1

'To feel' is a good translation for notar - well done

Re the tense, if you used the preterite it would be referring to the moment when you had that sensation and could even sound like it then stopped - if you want that feeling to cover a non-specific period of time with no reference to it ending then the imperfect is the way to go

@Bosque - although sentirse (to feel) is pronominal notarse with the reflexive pronoun would have a different meaning eg, to become obvious.

Thanks. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 8, 2016

no hay de que :) - Kiwi-Girl, Mar 8, 2016

Thanks! :) - AndréYuhai, Mar 8, 2016

you're very welcome :) - Kiwi-Girl, Mar 9, 2016

Answer 2

It was an ongoing action in the past over a period of time. and in this case agrees with all the other verbs, tensewise, including the one in the subjunctive.

Thanks Daniela! Even though it is an ongoing action, in English I think we just say "noticed". I just wanted to differentiate the meanings, in fact in my native language Turkish, we also use the same as well so it makes sense for me :) - AndréYuhai, Mar 7, 2016

We do use simple past in English often enough for imperfect. ;) - bosquederoble, Mar 7, 2016