Word
Él acababa de marcar cuando decidiste colgar.
Meaning
He had just dialed when you decided to hang up.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Él acababa de marcar cuando decidiste colgar.
él
he
decidir
to decide
cuando
when (statement)
acabar de
to have just
Questions & Answers about Él acababa de marcar cuando decidiste colgar.
Why does this sentence use the imperfect tense acababa to say "had just"?
The phrase acabar de followed by an infinitive means "to have just done something." When you use it in the present tense (like él acaba de marcar), it means "he has just dialed." To put this in the past ("he had just dialed"), you use the imperfect tense acababa. It sets the background for what had just happened right before another action occurred.
Why is acababa in the imperfect but decidiste is in the preterite?
This is a classic example of setting a scene versus an interrupting action. Acababa de marcar is the background situation describing the state he was in (having just dialed). Decidiste is the sudden, completed action that happened in the middle of that state (you decided to hang up).
I usually see marcar used to mean "to score" or "to mark." Does it also mean "to dial"?
Yes! While marcar is often used in sports to mean "to score" a goal, in the context of phones, it means "to dial." Similarly, colgar literally means "to hang" (like hanging clothes), but with phones, it translates to "to hang up."
Why isn't there a preposition like a or de between decidiste and colgar?