Learn Spanish (Latin America): Yo iba a comer el helado desesperadamente. - I was going to eat the ice cream desperately.

Word

Yo iba a comer el helado desesperadamente.

Meaning

I was going to eat the ice cream desperately.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Spanish (Latin America)

Lesson

Unfulfilled intentions (iba a)

Breakdown of Yo iba a comer el helado desesperadamente.

comer

to eat

to go

Questions & Answers about Yo iba a comer el helado desesperadamente.

Why use the imperfect iba instead of the preterite fui for this past intention?

Using the imperfect of ir (iba) followed by a and an infinitive (comer) expresses what you 'were going to do'. It implies an unfulfilled intention, meaning you planned to eat the ice cream but likely didn't. If you used the preterite (fui a comer), it would mean you physically went somewhere to eat it and actually completed the action.

Is the pronoun Yo mandatory here?

It is not mandatory, but it is very helpful. In the imperfect tense, the first-person (yo) and third-person (él, ella, usted) forms are identical. Because iba could also mean he, she, or you (formal) were going to eat it, adding yo removes any ambiguity about who the subject is.

Why does desesperadamente have an a before the -mente ending?

When forming adverbs with the suffix -mente (the equivalent of the English '-ly'), Spanish uses the feminine singular form of the adjective as the base. Since the adjective is desesperado, it changes to the feminine desesperada before adding -mente.

Could I place desesperadamente right after iba instead of at the end?