Which Spanish past tense?

niallcon4re

I understand that the preterite is usually for a sudden action like I went to the shop this moring so "fui" is correct while I went to a certain school when I was young is a running past tense like "used to" and hence "iba" is used.

However what is the tense for a past action , completed, but I don't specificy that it is completed although I expect you know it is, and it isn't particularly long term in the way that "I lived in Italy" would be "vivia en Italia".

For example "I was on holiday in France and there were lots of tourists" Is it "yo estaba en Francia en vacaciones y habia muchos turistas" or "Estuvé en Francia y hubo muchos turistas".

"The 1980s were bad" = "fueron mal" or "eran mal" ?

Is there a rule to guide me for past completed actions that were not one quick moment, and not a description leading up to an action?

Many thanks as this is driving me nuts - thanks

Niall

Peter Walczak

I'm not an expert nor a Spanish native speaker. I've been learning the language for a year only, so may not be accurate. I attended for some classes and we were told that if sth. happened or was going on in the past and you can pinpoint the exact moment (yesterday / last year / in the 80s) you use preterito indefinido, hence: 'Los anos ochenta fueron mal' but 'Estaba en Francia y habia muchos turistas alli'. However, if you mentioned you were in France last summer or three years ago or any other moment in time then you'd change the sentence to 'Fui en Francia el verano pasado y hubo muchos turistas alli'.
I had... Better be said, I still have... the same confusion and am probably making tones of mistakes but I try to stick to one thing my teacher said in classes: Read as much Spanish stories, short novels, press articles etc., even if you don't understand everything, and you'll get the difference in tenses.

Cheers!

niallcon4re

Thanks very much - that does ring a bell alright. Do you mind if I ask 2 follow on questions?

(1) If we are talking about my holiday and we both know that I went there 3 weeks ago and came back 1 week ago, if I do not say "En Diciembre......" Do I have to say "Estaba/habia" i.e. Can our knowledge dictate the tense or does it have to said?

(2) If I start off the conversation with "En diciembre....." Is it only the rest of the sentance that uses "estuvé, fue, hubo etc" or is the rest of my story now in that tense.


Thanks again