El pasado
Hola,

This is an article from BBC mundo and tells of someone's reaction to a court verdict :

Yo estaba anonadado. No supe cómo reaccionar.

Is there a clear reason / rule why "estaba" is used in the first sentence, but "supe" used in the second ? I would have thought that being stunned by something, and then not knowing how to react to the same thing would both be in the same tense. I'm confused why imperfecto and pretérito are both used to describe what seems like similar reactions to the same stimulus?

Gracias!

Question

El pasado
Hola,

This is an article from BBC mundo and tells of someone's reaction to a court verdict :

Yo estaba anonadado. No supe cómo reaccionar.

Is there a clear reason / rule why "estaba" is used in the first sentence, but "supe" used in the second ? I would have thought that being stunned by something, and then not knowing how to react to the same thing  would both be in the same tense. I'm confused why imperfecto and pretérito are both used to describe what seems like similar reactions to the same stimulus?

Gracias!

Answer

Si dices "Yo estaba anonadado [.] [,] [y] no sabía cómo reaccionar.
   La primera acción es simultánea a la segunda o interrumpida por esta. Ambas tienen una duración en el pasado y no se determina si finalizan o no (imperfecto).

Si dices "Yo estaba anonadado [.] [,] [y] no supe cómo reaccionar. (En ese momento no supe)
   Indicas que la segunda acción finaliza (perfecto) durante la duración de la primera.

Te dejo un link sobre los usos de los tiempos verbales:
https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ahermida/verbos1.htm

Answer

hello

Answers · 2

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