Learn Spanish (Latin America): Yo siempre recibía buenas notas en esa materia. - I always used to receive good grades in that subject.

Yo siempre recibía buenas notas en esa materia.

I always used to receive good grades in that subject.

Breakdown of Yo siempre recibía buenas notas en esa materia.

Questions & Answers about Yo siempre recibía buenas notas en esa materia.

Why is the verb recibía in the imperfect tense here instead of the preterite (recibí)?

The word siempre (always) is the big clue here! The imperfect tense is used for habitual or repeated actions in the past—things you "used to do." Because you always received good grades over a period of time, rather than just once, we use the imperfect recibía instead of the preterite recibí.

For regular -ir verbs like recibir, what is the pattern for the imperfect tense?

To form the imperfect for regular -er and -ir verbs, you drop the ending and add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, or -ían. Notice that the yo form (recibía) and the él/ella/usted form (recibía) are exactly the same! That is why the pronoun yo is helpful here—it makes it perfectly clear who we are talking about.

Why is the adjective placed before the noun in buenas notas instead of after (notas buenas)?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually go after the noun. However, common adjectives like bueno (good) and malo (bad) are often placed before the noun to express an inherent quality or to emphasize it. Buenas notas sounds very natural when talking about school grades.