Word
Él se estaba fijando en la fecha de la carta.
Meaning
He was noticing the date of the letter.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Él se estaba fijando en la fecha de la carta.
él
he
de
from / of
la carta
the letter
estar
to be (location/state)
Questions & Answers about Él se estaba fijando en la fecha de la carta.
Why is the preposition en used here when the English translation noticing does not have a preposition?
In Spanish, the verb fijarse (to notice or pay attention to) always requires the preposition en to connect it to the thing being noticed. This is called a governed preposition, meaning the verb naturally demands it, even if the English translation does not use one.
Does not the verb fijar usually mean to fix?
Yes, the standard non-reflexive verb fijar usually means to fix, set, or attach. However, when you make it reflexive and add en (fijarse en), the meaning changes completely to 'to notice' or 'to pay attention to'.
Could I attach the se to the end of fijando instead of putting it before estaba?
Absolutely! With continuous tenses using a form of estar plus a verb ending in -ando or -iendo, you can place the pronoun either before the conjugated verb (Él se estaba fijando) or attached to the end of the participle (Él estaba fijándose). Notice that if you attach it, you must add an accent mark over the a to keep the stress on the correct syllable.
What is the difference between saying se estaba fijando and se fijaba?
Both refer to ongoing actions in the past. Se fijaba is the standard imperfect tense. Se estaba fijando is the past progressive, which strongly emphasizes that he was right in the middle of noticing or paying attention at that exact moment in the past.