Question 1

Why is the verb veían instead of "vían"?

Accepted Answer

Ver (to see) is one of the three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense. Normally, an -er verb drops the ending and adds -ía (like comer becoming comía). But ver keeps its e, so the base becomes veía. For ustedes, you add the -n to make veían.

Question 2

Why does this translate to "used to see" rather than "saw"?

Accepted Answer

The imperfect tense is used for ongoing or repeated actions in the past. Translating it as "used to see" shows that this was a habit or something that happened regularly. If it was a completed, one-time event, you would use the preterite tense: vieron.

Question 3

I always mix up esos and estos. How do I remember which means "those"?

Accepted Answer

A common trick is the rhyme: "This and these have the T's, that and those don't." So estos means "these" (it has a T), while esos means "those" (no T). Since kioscos is a masculine plural noun, we use the masculine plural form esos.

Question 4

Do we need to include ustedes at the beginning of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

It is not strictly required if the context already makes it clear, but veían can mean "they used to see" (ellos or ellas) or "you all used to see" (ustedes). Including ustedes removes any confusion about who was seeing the kiosks.

Question 5

Why do we use en for "on the avenue"? Shouldn't it be "sobre"?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, the preposition en is versatile and covers "in," "on," and "at." When talking about locations like streets or avenues, you almost always use en. You generally only use sobre when talking about an object placed physically on top of a surface, like a book on a table.

Ustedes veían esos kioscos en la avenida.

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