Preterite o Imperfecto?

Question

Hi again!

Ok, so my teacher says that you use preterite in this sentence: "Maria was in Sevilla, she studied Spanish there" (Maria estuvó en Sevilla, estudió Español allí.)

But, I think that it's imperfecto because the sentence doesn't give us a start and stop time, right? (Maria estaba en Sevilla, estudiaba Espanol allí.)

Can someone please explain this for me?

Answer 1

Maria was in Sevilla at some point, but she is no longer in Sevilla. Think about it this way: she went there on holidays and she returned last week. While she was there, she studied Spanish, but she is no longer there so she isn't studying Spanish anymore. Maria estuvo (without the tilde) en Sevilla, estudió español (no need of capital letter) allí.

Aha! I get it! Thank you for correcting me!! =) - Spanishsweden, May 8, 2016

Answer 2

What a poorly constructed sentence in English, it's like two short sentences separated by a comma. If you were to say "When Maria was in Sevilla she studied Spanish", it would be perfectly correct to say "Cuando Maria estaba en Sevilla estudió español"

De acuerdo. ¿Por qué estudiaba el español María cuando estuvo en España. ¿Fuera italiana? - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, May 9, 2016

¿Quien sabe? :) - Jack-OBrien, May 9, 2016