Estuve o estaba hablando?

A qué dos son son y nunca uno?
Una de los aspectos de mi trabajo que más me gusta es ir dandome cuenta de donde y debido a qué mis alumnos les cuesta aprender los verb tenses in English.
Muchos de vosotros confundís estuve con estaba cuando habláis en inglés. Veamos:
“Ayer estuvimos hablando de ella.” vs
"Ayer estábamos hablando de ella.... cuando apareció por la puerta"
"Ayer hablamos con ella"

Vale, para muchos veis el verbo, una perífrasis de dos palabras. Una “estar” y el verbo en gerundio. I was talking/speaking. Qué fácil! Claro como el agua. Pues no. Yo os pongo otra pregunta: decidme como decir en inglés “ayer estábamos hablando de ella (cuando apareció)”. También tenemos el “estar” y el verbo en gerundio. Pero es lo mismo “estuvimos” que “estábamos”? No exactamente, ¿verdad? Para más inri, hay el “ayer, hablamos con ella”. Pues la explicación es fácil pero no necesariamente de entender para nosotros. No nos podemos fiar siempre de traducir palabra por palabra y aquí hay un ejemplo. Vuestros cerebros procesan el be y el ing. Perfecto. Pero no hay bien interiorizada la idea que el past continuous (was/were+Ving) hace referencia a un momento concreto en el tiempo, especificado más o menos explícitamente en algún momento de la conversación. De ahí la famosa frase que se da siempre “I was having a bath when the phone rang”. Hay la idea de cuando una acción quedo interrumpida, de algún modo, por otra que indica este “momento concreto. Es como:
 “ qué estabas haciendo ayer a las 7 de la tarde? V.
"que hiciste ayer?"

 El “estuve hablando se refiere a un momento super concreto o no? No, verdad? Pues no va con “be+ing” sino como un simple past simple. Yesterday I spoke to her. Como el “Ayer hable con ella”. Believe it or not.  ¿Por qué los dos iguales?, porqué en inglés no se diferencia este matiz que en castellano sí. El “estuve hablando” da la sensación de hablar más relajado, menos al grano. Si se quiere indicar esta cualidad pondríamos el “away” detrás del verbo pero esto merece otra entrada. Todos los verbos “past” ya sea simple o continuous indican una acción acabada en un momento del tiempo ya acabado. Todos. Es igual si es past simple o continuous or perfect for that matter. Esto hay que tenerlo claro. Luego, distinguimos entre la idea de en un momento concreto o en general. Si es general, si nada interrumpe a nada o al menos no lo mencionamos... usamos el past simple que tal como indica...es simple porque solo tienen una sola palabra. También podríamos hablar del hábito.. "antes hablaba mucho con ella" pero aquí pasamos un poco al “used to” porque puede referirse al hecho que ya no. I used to speak to her often - aquí no me voy a meter hoy, though. Si no es el caso, este “hablaba” también es un simple past simple. O sea que para el past simple inglés tenemos: estuve hablando, hablé y hablaba. Vaya tela, no?
En catalán la cosa se complica más porque el equivalente del past simple inglés tiene dos palabras: vaig parlar (hablé / I spoke), tres palabras del vaig estar parlant (estuve hablando/ I spoke), estava parlant (quan va arribar) ( estaba hablando / I was talking...when she arrived )...
Resumiendo, la idea es que a veces se puede confiar en traducir palabra por palabra y otras no. Hay que saber cuándo, y creo que es importante ser consciente de las similitudes y diferencias respecto a nuestros idiomas.

Present perfect and Past Simple for Spaniards

Learning a foreing language as an adult is like learning to drive a car. There's lots of different little but important actions to take into account: sit on the seat, fasten your seatbelt, check the rear-view mirrors, the ignition key, wait till the light goes off, turn the key, push the clutch and the gas pedal, you release the handbrake, and long etc of little actions that first are a list of things that little by little become mechanical. By repetition, we stop thinking what and how to do them. Learning English is very similar, from my way of understanding the process. When we build a sentence we have to "think" what we are going to say: present or past, finished or unfinished, is it a he or she or an it or a there or is it plural? is there a time reference, was this for a finished or unfinished action, the object goes immidiately after the verb, not after the time reference, etc. But it all should become more unconscious step by step.



Again, like in many other verb structures in English, we not only have to look at whether the action is finished or unfinished but also if there is any kind of time reference. A finished action does not necessarily refer to a recent past, as many of you often think.

So let’s look at what should be considered:

- finished or unfinished?
- is there or am I using a time reference (adverb or adverbial phrase)?
- is there an impact on the now, the present?
- Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
These are clues to help us choose what verb tense to use, present perfect or past simple.

Let’s look at them in more detail:

a. Finished/over or unfinished/not over action or event or situation:

Time references like for , since, how long, so far, until now, over the last few weeks, recently, these last few days if the action started in the past and it is still valid now, you are still doing it.

Mary has worked in XXX since 2001
She has worked in XXX for 9 years
I have known Sara since we were at university
since I started to work here
for many years.

The tense here, Has worked, have known, indicates that she stills works for XXX . And that she still know Sara (Sara nor I have died and there’s some kind of relationship) That, if now is 2010, she started to work for XXX 9 years ago. *
Starting is one specific moment in the past, from the moment you start, you are/ you work.

The idea of working in a certain place can be expressed in a number of ways DEPENDING ON THE TIME REFERENCE and the TENSE you use.

Now compare it with:
Mary worked in XXX for 9 years

Do we know when she started to work there?
Do we know if she still works there?

Finished action, she doesn’t work there anymore because we use the verb in past tense, which means the working there is finished. Then, what’s the “for 9 years” if we’ve seen that for is commonly used in the present simple? For expresses duration of an action or situation or state. Many Spaniards would say “during”.

So when you want to know the duration of a certain thing you use:
How long have you worked…?
How long did you work…?

(how long are you going to…?)

The most appropriate answer is .. I have been…. For a few hours/a few days/ a week/ two months/ a long time/ ages…or since Monday last week/ 2001, I was a university, etc the specific moment in the past the action/situation started

So we can see that for to express duration can be used for a finished action and for an unfinished action! That is a lot of information here!! So watch out.


b. Past (=finished) action is there an impact or results on the now, the present?

I have washed my hands (so now I can cook, now they are clean and ready to touch food), I have sent the email (so this is done, we can now forget about this)

It’s usually a recent past, but not necessarily. Here we can also use time references like just and already or yet or today, this morning (if still in the morning), this afternoon (if still afternoon),etc


c.


d. Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)

I have studied at university and I have done many different jobs so I have acquired many skills. I have also travelled a bit and I have studied photography to make the most of my trips. I have lived in a few countries…. IN MY LIFE and my life is not finished so present perfect, when I did all this is not important, if when was important, I would use the past simple. You can also use before here to justify your experience in sth.

I first went to England as a young teenager, when I completed my secondary school, in 1994 I went to university and after that I moved to Scandinavia to learn Swedish. In 2005 I studied photography. AS soon as I finished, I started to work for an art gallery.

So when you ask about
Have you ever been…? (in your life)
No I have never been

The most fascinating person I have ever met…

You are talking about your life experiences, and your life is not finished! There’s plenty more to do and experience, isn’t there?

Sample sentences:

Llevo días haciendo...
Hace mucho que…Hice (past) / Hago...(present perfect) Watch out, do not "trust your spanish present simple of hago)
Hace muchos días que no vengo a clase.
Hace mucho tiempo que no hablo en inglés
I haven’t spoken in English for a long time /for many days.
Anna has been to Rome. She went there a few months ago (different from Anna has gone to Rome!)
She has worked with msf for over a year
She has just started her English class
Carla and Eric have known each other for years/since they worked together in the field.
etc

As you can see Spanish often uses the time reference at the begining of the sentence, whereas in English we tend to put it at the end (depending on how we word the sentence).

This is not an exhaustive explanation but sorts some of the problems you might have.
hope it's useful!