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El niño lo iba a chupar, pero el helado chorreaba.

El niño lo iba a chupar, pero el helado chorreaba.
The boy was going to lick it, but the ice cream was dripping.
From Lesson 442:Unfulfilled intentions (iba a)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El niño lo iba a chupar, pero el helado chorreaba.

Why do we use the imperfect iba here instead of the preterite fue?
Using the imperfect of ir + a + infinitive (iba a chupar) is the standard way to express an unfulfilled past intention, meaning something the boy 'was going to do' but ultimately didn't. If you used the preterite (fue a chupar), it would usually imply he went and actually did it.
Could I attach the lo to the end of the infinitive instead of putting it before iba?
Yes, absolutely! You can say El niño iba a chuparlo. Both placements are perfectly natural and mean exactly the same thing. Placing the pronoun before the conjugated verb (lo iba a chupar) is simply a matter of speaker preference.
I thought chupar meant 'to suck'. Why is it translated as 'to lick' here?
While lamer is the direct translation for 'to lick', chupar is very commonly used in Latin America for consuming things like ice cream, lollipops, or hard candies, where the action is a natural mix of sucking and licking.
Why is chorreaba in the imperfect tense rather than the preterite?
The imperfect is used here to describe an ongoing background condition. The ice cream 'was dripping' continuously at the moment the boy was about to eat it. The preterite (chorreó) would imply a single, completed event that already finished.

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