A few questions about the past imperfect

Question

Question one:
Llovía y estaba nublado. It was raining and it was cloudy.
Why does one have estar and the other one doesn't? Is raining a verb and cloudy an adjective?

Question two:
Mientras Carla bailaba, Ignacio hablaba con Antonio.
Mientras Carla estaba bailando, Ignacio estaba hablando con Antonio.
While Carla was dancing, Ignacio was talking with Antonio.

I don't understand when to use imperfect indicative or imperfect progressive.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Re Question 2: there's actually quite a lot of overlap between estaba viendo etc and veía etc. As a generality:
- in cases where the meaning is was/were ...ing, in practice, it appears that speakers tend to use the continuous estaba ...-ando/iendo construction if that verb allows it (see below), but if presented with a sentence with the simple imperfect, they tend to accept that as an alternative (Butt & Benjamin make this judgement for Peninsular Spanish, and it appears to hold with speakers I've polled in Mexico)
- with the meaning of used to..., only the simple form is generally used;
- only the simple imperfect is generally used as a future-in-the-past: so speakers wouldn't say 'estaba viniendo a las tres (for venía a las tres, iba a venir a las tres)
- as in English, there are some Spanish verbs (so-called "stative" verbs) that don't tend to be used in the progressive: so it would be highly unusual to say, for example, ''nos estaba sobrando comida, ''me estaba pareciendo difícil, just as in English it would be odd to say ''I was hating the party, 'I was knowing what to do

Some information I've put together that may be of interest:

When to use the imperfect: simple vs continuous
When to use the imperfect tense (and other tenses)
Imperfect continuous forms (with exercises)

Answer 2

Erin said:

Question two: I'm understanding it a little better especially the "emphasize/intensify" suggestion by MJ. Where I'm still confused is what Lazarus said about using the imperfect progressive if I would have used the present progressive 'in the past'. I'm confused because the progressive form I thought was for something that was literally happening right this moment which is present tense. So I still don't understand how to separate the past imperfect progressive from past imperfect.
Imagine yourself on the scene in the past (the time that you were talking about). You could have said:
"Mientras Carla baila, Ignacio habla con Antonio." or "Mientras Carla está bailando, Ignacio está hablando con Antonio."
Lazarus' explanation is that if you would at that time have used the first sentence (simple present), then you should use simple imperfect now and, conversely, if you would have used the second sentence (present progressive), then you should use the imperfect progressive now.

Answer 3

Hace sol/viento/calor/frío/humedad
Está nublado/despejado
Llueve
Nieva
Graniza

Answer 4

Le di el plátano al mono. Me dio el boleto.
Te dimos unas manzanas.

Answer 5

Thank you everyone -

Question two: I'm understanding it a little better especially the "emphasize/intensify" suggestion by MJ. Where I'm still confused is what Lazarus said about using the imperfect progressive if I would have used the present progressive 'in the past'. I'm confused because the progressive form I thought was for something that was literally happening right this moment which is present tense. So I still don't understand how to separate the past imperfect progressive from past imperfect.

Question one: are there other weather conditions that need estar? I'm thinking foggy for one since that's not a verb. It wasn't "fogging outside". I'm probably opening up a can of worms now - for when to use hace, estar or just the verb.

Answer 6

Re Question two: My Barron's Spanish Grammer (Christopher Kendris, pocket edition, p. 78) says use the imperfect indicative for an action that was going on in the past while another action occurred. (This is one use of the imperfect indicative.)
Mientras Carla bailaba, Ignacio hablaba con Antonio.

But they also say use the progressive tenses when you want to "emphasize or intensify" an action (p. 91).
Mientras Carla estaba bailando, Ignacio estaba hablando con Antonio. (Uhm, maybe for some reason Ignacio didn't want Carla to know he talked with Antonio...')

Answer 7

Question 1: Llover is an intransitive verb that doesn't need anything else, whereas the construction "estar nublado" cannot be expressed with a single verb, so you need "estar" + an adjective (nublado).

Question 2: You use the "imperfect progressive" if you would have used the present progressive in the past. The progressive form focuses on a particular point in the middle of a definite action, with a beginning and an end, that "progresses" (i.e. its progress can be measured as time passes).

Answer 8

Regarding 'Question one', I think 'nublado' can only really be said as an adjective. I could be wrong but I've never heard it said 'nublaba' the way 'llover' is being used (as a verb).