Plans that fell through
The imperfect of pensar + infinitive or ir a + infinitive describes a plan you had, and often hints that it is not going to happen. The but may be said or only understood.
| Ana was planning to go to the cinema, but she is very tired. | Ana pensaba ir al cine, pero está muy cansada. |
| What a coincidence! I was going to call you right now. | ¡Qué casualidad! Te iba a llamar ahora mismo. |
The plan can even be about tomorrow: pensábamos puts it in the past because it has just changed.
| Tomorrow we were planning to go on a trip, but it is going to snow. | Mañana pensábamos ir de excursión, pero va a nevar. |
A conversation that was cut off works the same way: you pick up the thread with the imperfect.
| What was I telling you guys? | ¿Qué os estaba diciendo? |
Further back: había pensado
With the pluperfect, the plan belongs to an earlier past, and usually it clearly did not happen.
| I had planned to call you, but I forgot. | Había pensado llamarte, pero se me olvidó. |
| We had planned to go to the beach, but it rained all weekend. | Habíamos pensado ir a la playa, pero llovió todo el fin de semana. |
Dreams and make-believe
After soñar que, the scene of the dream usually goes in the imperfect. Children's games of pretend use it too: jugar a que + imperfect (to pretend, in a game), or just yo era…, tú eras… to hand out the roles, even when the game starts right now.
| Spanish | English | |
|---|---|---|
| a dream | Soñé que podía volar. | I dreamed I could fly. |
| a game | Jugamos a que éramos princesas. | Let's pretend we're princesses. |
| the roles | Yo era la profesora y tú eras el alumno. | Say I was the teacher and you were the student. |
| Last night I dreamed that I lived on an island. | Anoche soñé que vivía en una isla. |
| Let's play: say I was the teacher and you were the student. | Vamos a jugar: yo era la profesora y tú eras el alumno. |
| The children were pretending the sofa was a boat. | Los niños jugaban a que el sofá era un barco. |
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