Grammar Question from A Good Spanish Book! page 46

Question

Hola! In my university class we are studying imperfecto and perfecto de indicativo. In our Spanish book there is a sentence that goes like:

-cuando estábamos allí nos llamaron

Could it not be changed to "cuando ESTUVIMOS allí nos llamaron?" The sentence would still make sense I think. It's page 46 of "A Good Spanish Book!" by University Academic Editions, Dr Ricardo Roque Mateos , the edition from 2017, the second exercise. Thank you very much for the help. It's a great book but I missed some lectures and I gotta get back on track. Thanks.

Answer 1

You use the imperfect for the narrative and setting the scene. I was taught it as a time line so the imperfect is used for things you usually do as well. You can have a series of short actions started and finished in the past which can all use the preterite but yours seems a continuing action interrupted by the call, which finished and they were still there.

It can subtly change the meaning depending what tense you use. In Spain they also use the preterito perfecto more frequently than in Mexico .

I think Daniela who teaches Spanish has done a lengthy post about these tenses.

It is important you understand the differences so why not ask your teacher for another lesson - there will be others who will benefit.