Learn Spanish (Latin America): El adolescente crecía rápido en el verano. - The teenager used to grow fast in the summer.

El adolescente crecía rápido en el verano.

The teenager used to grow fast in the summer.

Breakdown of El adolescente crecía rápido en el verano.

Questions & Answers about El adolescente crecía rápido en el verano.

Why do we use crecía instead of the regular past tense here?

crecía is in the imperfect tense, which is used for ongoing or habitual actions in the past. It translates to "used to grow" or "was growing". If we used the preterite past tense (creció), it would sound like a one-time, completed event, as if he finished growing entirely in one single summer!

Since crecía ends in -ía, how do we know if it means "I used to grow" or "he used to grow"?

The imperfect endings for yo (I) and él/ella/usted (he/she/you formal) are exactly the same for -er and -ir verbs: they both end in -ía. We know this specifically means "he used to grow" because the subject of the sentence, el adolescente, is clearly stated right before it.

Does adolescente change to adolescenta for a girl?

No, adolescente is a noun that ends in -e, meaning the word itself stays the same for both males and females. To specify the gender, you just change the article: el adolescente for a teenage boy, and la adolescente for a teenage girl.

Why does the sentence use rápido instead of the adverb rápidamente?