Lesson 61: Past Tense: When the line and the dot meet

We've covered the two ways to talk about the past. Ongoing things - the line in the past, and single moments - the dot in the past. Often we need to use them both in the same sentence.

Let's take this: "I was cooking when he called".

Now although you could use the dod in the past to express that you were cooking if you were just talking about the cooking, when you are saying "[SOMETHING] was going on when [SOMETHING] happened" you are actually saying "[LINE] [DOT]"

So I was cooking is the line in the past, the activity that happened over time. Him calling is the dot, the event at a particular point in time.

Spanish	English
Cocinaba cuando el teléfono sonó	I was cooking when the phone rang
Cocinaba cuando sonó el teléfono	I was cooking when the phone rang

Nice little fact here is what 'teléfono?' actually comes from greek and means:

• tele = distant
• fono = voice

That surprised me considering the telephone was invented in the US but then it turns out that acousitc telephones were in use in Europe for many centuries before this and that is probably where it gets its more European rooted name from.

Acousitc telephones used bits of string at certain tensions and this could also be a reason that in Spanish you say "I was speaking through the telephone" ... which is yet another use of 'por'!

Spanish	English
Hablaba por teléfono cuando María llegó	I was speaking on the phone when Maria arrived

Quedarse in the past

As we've looked at before reflexive verbs carry on being reflexive in the last

Spanish	English
Me quedé	I stayed
Se quedó	He/she/it/you (formal) stayed
nos quedamos	We stayed

... and the one that can catch people out ...

Spanish	English
Me gustó	I liked it
No me gustó	I didn't like it

... becuase we are actually saying "It pleased me" / "It did not please me" so the verb takes the 'he/she/it/you (formal)' form.

Now something can please you for a moment - that dot in the past that we see above - or it can please you over a long period of time in which case it is the line in the past:

Spanish	English
No me gustaba	I didn't like it

Now which one is right is very often a decision made by the speaker as we will all have our own views over what is a dot in the past and what is a line in the past. You might have done something for a month but many years ago - that could be a line or a dot ... its very much up to you.

Paracer

The English use of the reflexive shows through more in 'paracer' - "to appear to be".

Spanish	English
Me parece	It seems to me
Me parece bien	It seems good to me
Me pareció bien	It seemed good to me (dot)
Me parecía bien	It seemed good to me (line)

So ... "It seemed good to me but when I say it I didn't like it"

• "It seemed good to me" - 'Me paracía bien'
• "but" - 'pero'
• "when" - 'cuando'
• "I saw it" - 'lo ví'
• "I didn't like it" - 'no me gustó'

Spanish	English
Me parecia bien pero cuando lo vi no me gustó	It seemed good to me but when I saw it I didn't like it

Lesson 62: 'Gave' and why 'le' sometimes becomes 'se'