(estoy hablando o hablo ;;estaba discutiendo o discutia)

Question

(estoy hablando o hablo ;;estaba discutiendo o discutia)

what is the difference between them or are they same'

Answer 1

(estoy hablando o hablo ;;estaba discutiendo o discutia)

what is the difference between them or are they same?

I don't see the relevance of either of those topics.

I think we're contrasting the present .vs. the present continuous (progressive)
or the simple past (imperfect) .vs. the past progressive (continuous)

In both case they may be translated the same.
For instance I am doing or I was doing

hago = I do, I am doing, I did, I (will) do
estoy haciendo= I am doing

hacía= I did, I was doing, I used to do
estaba haciendo = I was doing

The difference between say the past continuous and the imperfect past is that the imperfect is painting a background picture of what you were doing while the past progressive adresses a particular moment in the past.

I used to go to see my parents every weekend. (imperfect, habitual action)
To express an action in the past that has not been completed or was not completed in the past.

I was doing something when some event interrupted me. Either the past progressive or the imperfect to express what action was progressing at the moment when the event interrupted it (preterite tense) (the concept often referred to as the imperfect providing a video while the preterite provides a snapshot of the past.)

So we use the progressive to describe what was occurring at a particular moment in the present, past or future. If we want to expand the time span to include what was happing before or continues after that moment we would use the simple past, or present.

So to answer your question sometimes they are interchangeable, while in other contexts only one is applicable.

Answer 2

there is something i want to add,, i am not native-speaker and i am not english,,,sometimes i get hard of understanding the context..but yes teacher , i got someting useful in the link you send but the second one is what i try to explain but learnt good things in both answer you gave me ,,,thx so much

i love this siteeeee ))

Answer 3

I don't see the relevance of either of those topics.

I saw discutía without the accent and thought that he had left out the accent on habló. I incorrectly thought he wanted a comparison between the preterite and imperfect. I added the other link just in case there was something he might find of interest. Having re-read the question, I can now see my mistake.

Answer 4

(estoy hablando o hablo ;;estaba discutiendo o discutia)

what is the difference between them or are they same?

Hi Davit
Take a look at this thread. I am sure it will help.
preterite v imperfect

Also look at this

Ser + the present participle