Breakdown of Hacía una semana que él descansaba debajo de la palmera.
él
he
una
a, an (feminine)
descansar
to rest
la semana
the week
que
that / than
debajo de
under
hacer
(of time) for / ago
la palmera
the palm tree
Questions & Answers about Hacía una semana que él descansaba debajo de la palmera.
Why does this sentence use descansaba (imperfect) instead of something like había estado descansando to mean 'had been resting'?
In English, we use the past perfect continuous ('had been resting') for an action that started in the past and was still ongoing at another moment in the past. In Spanish, when you use the hacía + [time] + que formula, the ongoing action is expressed in the imperfect indicative (descansaba). This tense shows that the resting was still happening as the clock hit the one-week mark in your past narrative.
Could I flip the sentence around and put the time expression at the end?
What is the difference between using debajo de la palmera and bajo la palmera?
They mean the same thing here and are often interchangeable for physical locations. However, debajo de strongly emphasizes the literal, physical position of being underneath an object. Bajo is a bit more formal and is the only correct choice for figurative contexts, such as being under pressure (bajo presión) or under a new law.
If he finished resting after that week, would we still use this hacía... que structure?
No. If the action was completely finished and you just want to state that it lasted a week, you would use the preterite tense, like Él descansó debajo de la palmera por una semana. The hacía... que plus imperfect structure is only used when the action was still actively continuing at that point in your past story.
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