Learn Spanish (Latin America): El huracán rompió la ventana mientras estábamos leyendo. - The hurricane broke the window while we were reading.

El huracán rompió la ventana mientras estábamos leyendo.

The hurricane broke the window while we were reading.

Breakdown of El huracán rompió la ventana mientras estábamos leyendo.

leer

to read

estar

to be (location/state)

Questions & Answers about El huracán rompió la ventana mientras estábamos leyendo.

Why is rompió in the preterite but estábamos is in the imperfect?

This is a classic pattern for telling a story in the past! The past continuous (estábamos leyendo) sets the scene of a background action that was already in progress. The preterite (rompió) is used for the sudden, completed action that interrupted it.

Could I just say mientras leíamos instead of mientras estábamos leyendo?

Yes, you can! Both can mean 'while we were reading.' Using estábamos leyendo (the past continuous) just puts a little extra emphasis on the fact that the action was actively happening right at that exact moment.

Why is the gerund of leer spelled leyendo with a 'y' instead of an 'i'?

Normally, to make an '-ing' word (a gerund) for an '-er' or '-ir' verb, you add '-iendo'. But if the stem of the verb ends in a vowel, like le- from leer, having three vowels in a row like 'leiendo' is hard to pronounce. Spanish changes the unaccented 'i' to a 'y' to make it leyendo.

Why does estábamos have an accent mark?

All verbs conjugated in the nosotros (we) form of the imperfect tense have an accent mark on the third-to-last syllable. This tells you to keep the spoken stress on that 'a' instead of letting it naturally fall on the second-to-last syllable, which is the default rule for words ending in 's'.