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Acababa de contestar la llamada.

Acababa de contestar la llamada.
I had just answered the call.
From Lesson 219:The past resultative (acababa de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Acababa de contestar la llamada.

acabar de
to have just
contestar
to answer
la llamada
the call

Questions & Answers about Acababa de contestar la llamada.

Why do we use the imperfect acababa de here instead of the preterite acabé de?
To say you had just done something, you use the imperfect tense of acabar (acababa) followed by de and an infinitive (contestar). This sets up a background moment in the past. If you used the preterite (acabé de contestar), it would mean you finished answering, focusing on the completion of the action rather than how recently it happened.
How do we know acababa means I had just instead of he had just or she had just?
In the imperfect tense, the yo (I) and él/ella/usted (he/she/you formal) forms are exactly the same. Because the pronoun is omitted here, you have to rely on the surrounding context of the conversation to know exactly who answered the call.
Does contestar mean to contest?
No, contestar is a classic false friend. It simply means to answer or reply. If you want to say to contest or to challenge something, you would use a verb like cuestionar.
Is it also correct to translate I had just answered word-for-word as había justo contestado?
While English uses the past perfect (had answered) with the word just, Spanish strongly prefers the acabar de + infinitive structure. You might occasionally hear literal translations with words like justo or recién, but acababa de contestar is by far the most natural and standard way to express this idea.

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