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Alguien estaba llorando en el rincón.

Alguien estaba llorando en el rincón.
Someone was crying in the corner.
From Lesson 150:Indefinite pronouns for people (alguien, nadie)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Alguien estaba llorando en el rincón.

How does alguien work here, and does it change depending on who the 'someone' is?
Alguien means 'someone' or 'somebody'. It is an indefinite pronoun, meaning it refers to an unknown person. It never changes for gender or number—it is always alguien, even if you suspect the person crying is female.
How would I make this sentence negative to say 'Nobody was crying'?
To say 'nobody', you replace alguien with nadie. You can put it at the start of the sentence: Nadie estaba llorando en el rincón. Alternatively, you can use Spanish's double negative rule by putting no before the verb and nadie after it: No estaba llorando nadie en el rincón. Both options are perfectly natural!
Why is it estaba llorando instead of just lloraba?
Estaba llorando is the past continuous tense (was crying). It uses the imperfect tense of estar plus the -ando form of llorar to emphasize that the action was actively in progress at that exact moment. You could also say Alguien lloraba, but estaba llorando paints a stronger picture of an ongoing action.
Does rincón mean the same kind of 'corner' as a street corner?
No! Spanish has two different words for 'corner'. Rincón is an inside corner, like the corner of a room where someone might sit or cry. If you want to talk about an outside corner, like a street intersection, you must use the word esquina.

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