Question 1

The translation says "We used to walk." Could caminábamos also mean "We were walking" here?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. The imperfect tense describes background information, ongoing past actions, or habits in the past. Without more context, caminábamos can mean either a habitual action ("We used to walk") or an ongoing action ("We were walking"). For instance, if you added an interrupting event to this sentence, it would naturally be translated as "We were walking along the shopping street when..."

Question 2

Why use por instead of en for walking on a street?

Accepted Answer

When talking about movement along, down, or through a space, Spanish uses por. If you say caminábamos en la calle, it focuses strictly on your static, physical location (you were walking within the confines of the street), whereas por captures the natural forward movement of strolling down or passing through it.

Question 3

Does comercial refer to a TV commercial here?

Accepted Answer

No, in this context, the adjective comercial means "related to commerce, business, or retail." A calle comercial is what we call a "shopping street" or a "commercial district" in English. If you want to talk about a TV commercial, you would use the noun un anuncio or una propaganda.

Question 4

Since this is a B2 sentence, wouldn't it be more natural to drop the pronoun Nosotros?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is generally much more natural to drop it in everyday speech. The -ábamos suffix on caminábamos leaves zero ambiguity that the subject is "we." A native speaker would only include Nosotros here to add contrast or emphasis, such as pointing out that we were walking while someone else was driving.

Nosotros caminábamos por la calle comercial.

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