haciendo again?

Question

Haciendo again? Could haciendo be used in preterit and imperfect tenses too? For e.g estuve haciendo mi tarea

Answer 1

In principle, any of the tenses can be simple or continuous, though just as in English, there are certain combinations that in practice are more common than others.

The two you mention are a little bit tricky, because they both are usually translated by "was/were ...ing" in English. But they imply slightly different things. As you are probably aware, the general distinction between the simple preterite and the imperfect is that the preterite tends to imply or focus on the "end points" of an action, or on the "total duration including endpoints", whereas the imperfect tense to focus on the "middle" of an action, usually without expressing if/when an action's endpoints are.

Well, the same is essentially true of the continuous forms. So in general:
(1) use the imperfect continuous to say "was/were ...ing", where you're focussing on the "middle" of the action, and where typically you could add "at that moment" in English:
estaba haciendo mi tarea cuando llegó mi hermano
"I was doing my homework (at that moment) when my brother got in"
(2) use the preterite continuous to say "was/were ...ing", but where you're talking about the point or points that delimit the action (often when you''re talking about when it ended, or its overall duration), for example:
estuve haciendo mi tarea toda la noche
"I was doing my homework all night"
estuve haciendo mi tarea hasta las diez de la tarde
"I was doing my homework until 10 in the evening"
In these cases, there's a phrase like toda la noche that delimits the action. Notice that in this case, it wouldn't make sense to insert "at that moment".

Some articles I've written that might help explain and expand on this:

simple vs continuous and imperfect vs preterite continuous

when to use the imperfect tense in Spanish

Answer 2

I think it would be more likely to say, "Estaba haciendo mi tarea."

Answer 3

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/COURSES/GERUND.HTM

comer=comiendo =eating; not - I am eating. Don't confuse the gerund with the present progressive
look at the above link and it will explain how to form the gerund (including the irregular verbs)

Answer 4

Thanks so much I am learning all the time. Could one add the -ndo uffix to most verbs, for ei, comondo I am eatin?

Quentin said:

Estar in the simple past and imperfect past can be used with the gerund to form the past progressive. It is no longer the imperfect past or simple past tense.In English> present progressive - I am talkingPast progressive - I was talkingfuture progressive- I will be talkingconditional progressive- I would be talkingThe compound tenses can also form a progressive tense: I would have been talking, I will have been talking, etc.I'm fairly sure that I recall Lazarus saying all of the tenses can be made progressive.All these progressive forms are constructed by using the conjugated form of estar with the gerund:estoy, estaba, estuve, estaré, estaría, he estado, había estado, habré estado, etc. + haciendo (gerund)

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Answer 5

Estar in the simple past and imperfect past can be used with the gerund to form the past progressive. It is no longer the imperfect past or simple past tense.
In English> present progressive - I am talking
Past progressive - I was talking
future progressive- I will be talking
conditional progressive- I would be talking
The compound tenses can also form a progressive tense: I would have been talking, I will have been talking, etc.
I'm fairly sure that I recall Lazarus saying all of the tenses can be made progressive.
All these progressive forms are constructed by using the conjugated form of estar with the gerund:
estoy, estaba, estuve, estaré, estaría, he estado, había estado, habré estado, etc. + haciendo (gerund)