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Spanish Past Tenses and Gerund

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DaraghM
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Ireland
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 Message 1 of 6
19 June 2009 at 11:43am | IP Logged 
I'm a little confused about which past tenses are used with the gerund, and how to pick the correct usage.

E.g.

1. Yo estaba leyendo
2. Yo estuve leyendo
3. He estado leyendo(?).


Is the third option possible, and does it mean the same as Llevar + gerundio ?


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Breogan
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Spain
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Speaks: Spanish*, Galician*, French, English
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 Message 2 of 6
19 June 2009 at 5:16pm | IP Logged 
DaraghM wrote:
I'm a little confused about which past tenses are used with the gerund, and how to pick the correct usage.

E.g.

1. Yo estaba leyendo
2. Yo estuve leyendo
3. He estado leyendo(?).


Is the third option possible, and does it mean the same as Llevar + gerundio ?



Yes, that's right, like in the following examples:

"He estado leyendo desde las seis" = "Llevo leyendo desde las seis", both sentences mean "I've been reading since six o'clock"
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kerateo
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Mexico
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 Message 3 of 6
10 July 2009 at 11:04am | IP Logged 
1. Yo estaba leyendo
I was reading
2. Yo estuve leyendo
I was reading
3. He estado leyendo(?).
I have been reading

the diference between the first and the second is that the first is used when something else happened
Estaba leyendo cuando llegaste
Estaba leyendo antes del huracan
Estaba leyendo cuando me mori :)
the second is used when nothing happened you are just saying something that you did, usually as an answer to a question like ¿que hiciste durante mi ausencia?
Estuve leyendo durante dos años
Estuve leyendo a Freud
Estuve leyendo hasta que se me cansaron los ojos

ohh.. and i left the "Yo" out intentionaly is just plain wrong :)


Edited by kerateo on 10 July 2009 at 11:05am

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Akipenda Lugha
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Canada
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Studies: Swahili, Sign Language, Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 6
18 July 2009 at 8:18am | IP Logged 
In my (mexican) Spanish class I was told that 'hube' is no longer commonly used and to
just use había for both the imperfect and preterite perfect progressive senses.
So for instance, I wouldn't say 'Ayer, hube estado leyendo...' even if it refers to a
particular complete instance. Is this true?
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TheBiscuit
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 Message 5 of 6
20 July 2009 at 6:44pm | IP Logged 
Akipenda Lugha wrote:
In my (mexican) Spanish class I was told that 'hube' is no longer commonly used and to
just use había for both the imperfect and preterite perfect progressive senses.
So for instance, I wouldn't say 'Ayer, hube estado leyendo...' even if it refers to a
particular complete instance. Is this true?

Yes, it's not used here.
1 person has voted this message useful



Javi
Senior Member
Spain
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419 posts - 548 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 6 of 6
20 July 2009 at 7:23pm | IP Logged 
Akipenda Lugha wrote:
In my (mexican) Spanish class I was told that 'hube' is no longer commonly used and to
just use había for both the imperfect and preterite perfect progressive senses.
So for instance, I wouldn't say 'Ayer, hube estado leyendo...' even if it refers to a
particular complete instance. Is this true?


Hi, your sentence is just wrong, and I suspect that always has been, so it's not a question of not being commonly used. The pretérito anterior (hube terminado) is not used in speech any longer, but you can see it in literature. In your progressive sentence is weird though.


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