Would this sentence be imperfect or preterite? Continued

Question

This question by Quincyhopper has already been answered and accepted, making it unlikely that this would get any attention if I simply added it there, so I am doing a separate question:

The question:

"Today (in class), we had to talk about our parents"

Would this sentence be "Hoy, teníamos que hablar de nuestros padres" or "Hoy, tuvimos que hablar de nuestros padres"?

The answer of course was the second option.

But it made me wonder about situations in which the imperfect might be appropriate.

So I wondered, is this sentence correct (both in use of teníamos, and in general)?

"Hoy, teníamos que hablar de nuestros padres, pero antes de me tocara a mí, tuve un ataque de pánico y me fui de la escuela.”

Today we had talk about our parents, but before it was my turn, I had a panic attack and left the school.

I know you can interrupt one ongoing action with another, and put the interrupted one in the imperfect and the action that interrupts it in preterit. But I don’t know if that applies to “tener que” as it is an obligation more than an action.

I English, most naturally I would probably have said: Today we were supposed to talk about our “parents…, and admit that “were having to…” would sound a bit odd (although maybe not completely wrong?), hence my translations simply as “had to” in the English.

Comments on the English are also welcome.

Answer 1

"Hoy, teníamos que hablar de nuestros padres, pero antes de me tocara a mí, tuve un ataque de pánico y me fui de la escuela.”

Hola, Bosque:

What it sounds like to me is a "setting the stage" descriptive statement in which the imperfect might be used, but I would still stick with the preterite in both cases.

Now if you had used "supposed to" I probably would have used "deber" and for some reason that I can't think of, that goes into the imperfect.

Debíamos dar una charla sobre nuestros padres, pero antes de que me tocara a mí, tuve un ataque de pánico y me fui de la escuela. (I probably would have used "me escapé de la clase jadeante."

Thanks. - bosquederoble, Dec 21, 2016

So it sounds like it is similar in Spanish and English, it just sounds weird to put tener que/had to into the imperfect, but it works normally in other verbs. :) - bosquederoble, Dec 21, 2016

I meant of course in this sent, I am sure it works fine for used to have to (repetitive action) in Spanish like it does in English. :) - bosquederoble, Dec 21, 2016

In this sense- I don't know where the word sent came from there. :) - bosquederoble, Dec 21, 2016

If you stuck in an adverb like "cada semana" then the imperfect would be fine. Cada semana teníamos que---whatever. - Daniela2041, Dec 21, 2016

That is what I thought. Thanks, it works similar to English, so it should be easy to remember. :) - bosquederoble, Dec 21, 2016