Imperfect or Perfect?

Question

1. ______(faltar) más bebidas para satisfacer la sed de todos los invitados.

so for this would it be imperfect or preterite in this case?

I'm pretty sure it would be imperfect and therefore resulting in the usage of faltaba, but I'm really not sure

Answer 1

Was there a definite beginning to the lack of drinks? In other words did you run out at some point or did this happen several times during the party? The answer to that question should help you to decide whether it is imperfect or preterite

So I wasn't given any additional information, whilch leaves the answer to those questions ambiguous(in my perspective) so if that's the case do i just do imperfect, since its uncertain? - insignia, Jul 25, 2017

Insignia: yes, I think imperfect would be OK here since there is no indication that the drink just ran out. Maybe there were never enough drinks to satiify the guests. - DilKen, Jul 25, 2017

Faltar, in this usage is sort of a background / status sort of thing as well, not an action. This also points to the imperfect. - DilKen, Jul 25, 2017

i see, thank you - insignia, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 2

From the information given in the sentence, imperfect (faltaba) is necessary because faltar represents the time frame in which the preterite verb satisfacer occurs.

Julian: Very interesting, even though the verb satisfacer is in the infinitive you can attribute a preterite quality to it? - DilKen, Jul 25, 2017

I'm very interested in this sort of thing. A couple of weeks ago I was reading something from the RAE that discuss how, from context, the infinitive can be interpreted as dealing with a person other then the person in the prior phrase. I can't remember - DilKen, Jul 25, 2017

the grammatical implications anymore. For example, guests arrive and the host says Tengo mucho de comer. The comer clearly applies to all the guests in that case, not the host who is going to eat a lot.:) - DilKen, Jul 25, 2017

I too would have thought either was possible depending on the context, although lacking it, I leaned towards imperfect. I still struggle with imperfect vs. preterit. Luckily it usually does not make you ununderstandable. Just sound odd:) - bosquederoble, Jul 25, 2017

This is difficult to explain because the sentence alone has a nuance of giving background followed by an action, so it´s not completey a matter of grammar but of usual formations of these types of sentences, ie: "It sounds better this way" ............... - 005faa61, Jul 25, 2017

........... It doesn´t seem to be a report of one completed action after another - 005faa61, Jul 25, 2017