Re: Spanish: Era versus Fue

From: Javier BF (uaxuctum_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: 5 Sep 2004 12:50:38 -0700

> Even more difficult for non-native speakers, in my opinion, are tenses
> like "estuve haciendo" -- seems at first like an oxymoron, combining a
> fixed occasion with a continuous tense. And yet it's perfectly
> logical: eg to google at random:
>
> "en este tiempo que no estuve haciendo shows, estuve muy
> ocupada"
>
> Not "estaba haciendo" because that period is being viewed as a whole,
> a phase that's now over & done with.
>
> Another example:
>
> ¿Qué estuviste haciendo como modelo? Magalí: Estuve haciendo desfiles,
> fotos.
>
> Not "¿Qué hiciste como modelo?", which though possible sounds a bit
> bald by comparison. (Native speakers, please comment!)

The distinction "hizo" vs. "hacía" is about boundedness (whether
the event is portrayed as having a definite limit or not); note
it's _not_ about "hizo" being punctual vs. "hacía" being durative.

The distinction "estuvo haciendo" vs. "hizo" is about durativeness
(whether the event is portrayed as spanning along the temporal
axis or not); you may call the non-durative option punctual if
you like, but note it does not imply the event is instantaneous.

"hacía": unbounded, non-durative
"estaba haciendo": unbounded, durative

"hizo": bounded, non-durative
"estuvo haciendo": bounded, durative

Cheers,
Javier