Breakdown of Comentó que residía en la ciudad y que montaba una agencia.
y
and
una
a, an (feminine)
en
in / on / at
la ciudad
the city
que
that / than
comentar
to comment
la agencia
the agency
residir
to reside
montar
to set up
Questions & Answers about Comentó que residía en la ciudad y que montaba una agencia.
What would his original words have been, and why do they change to residía and montaba here?
His original words were likely in the present tense: "Resido en la ciudad y monto una agencia" (I reside in the city and I am setting up an agency). Because the reporting verb (comentó) is in the past, those present-tense verbs backshift to the imperfect (residía, montaba) to align with the past timeline.
The translation says "was setting up," so why isn't it estaba montando?
You could absolutely use the past continuous (estaba montando), but Spanish frequently uses the simple imperfect (montaba) to describe actions that were ongoing in the past. If his original quote used the simple present to describe his ongoing project ("monto una agencia"), it naturally shifts to the simple imperfect in reported speech.
Why is que repeated after y in y que montaba?
In English, we usually drop the second "that" in a sentence like "He commented that he resided... and [that he] was setting up...". In Spanish reported speech, you generally cannot drop it. You must repeat que for each new clause being reported to keep the structure clear and avoid ambiguity.
I learned montar as "to ride". How does it mean "setting up" here?
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