There was a half million dollars here.

Question

Hola

A few days I asked you about a sentence with "estuve/estaba". It made me think, that the Spanish imperfect tense works in the same way as Polish. My question is: Is it possible to say something like this:

Jugabamos/Estabamos jugando al futbol en la lección de educacion física.

Había aquí un medio millón de dollares (also taken from Narcos)

Ayer escribía un libro, pero no lo terminé

It implies that this action was going on for some period of time. Would it be okay?

Gracias

The correct spelling is "period" not "peroid". - NKM1974, Oct 6, 2017

Thanks - Matty08, Oct 6, 2017

Answer 1

Jugabamos/Estabamos jugando al fútbol en la lección de educación física.

This is possible if you add a sentence either previous or after the sentence.

¿Dónde se lesionó Pedro? Estábamos jugando al fútbol (y se cayó)

Había aquí medio millón de dólares (also taken from Narcos)

Someone is surprised that there is no money in the safe (for example) as ...había un millón de dólares y ahora no hay nada.

Ayer escribía un libro, pero no lo terminé

This is wrong. ayer escribí un libro pero no lo terminé.

However, look at the following:

Ayer escribía / estaba escribieno un libro cuando me llamó Pepa y me distrajo totalmente.

Answer 2

The first sentence, alone with no context, gives the meaning that something else happened during that time even though no other action is mentioned, so it sounds strange, especially with continuous tense.

The second sentence sounds OK, but it too has the nuance of other actions happening in associated sentences, which is normally how we would use this verb.

The third sentence sounds strange because ayer indicates a specific period during which you would expect the writing to be finished even though you say it wasn´t. More natural; ie: Ayer me dediqué a escribir un libro pero no lo terminé.