Breakdown of Día tras día, trabajó sin descansar.
el día
the day
trabajar
to work
descansar
to rest
sin
without
tras
after, behind (formal; día tras día)
Questions & Answers about Día tras día, trabajó sin descansar.
"Day after day" implies a repeated action. Why is trabajó in the preterite here instead of the imperfect (trabajaba)?
While the imperfect is generally used for repeated past habits, the preterite is used when the speaker views that entire series of actions as one completed, closed period of time. Using trabajó summarizes that specific phase of his life as a finished event, whereas trabajaba would feel more like setting an ongoing background scene.
Why use tras for "after" instead of después de?
Tras can mean "after" or "behind." While después de is the standard way to say "after" for events in time, tras is the required word for repetitive time expressions like día tras día (day after day), año tras año (year after year), or mes tras mes (month after month).
The English translation says "without resting". Why isn't the Spanish gerund (descansando) used here?
In Spanish, whenever a verb immediately follows a preposition like sin (without), de (of/from), or para (for), it must always remain in the infinitive form. Therefore, "without resting" translates to sin descansar, never sin descansando.
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