Learn Spanish (Spain): Las niñas cantaban en el patio. - The girls used to sing in the courtyard.

Las niñas cantaban en el patio.

The girls used to sing in the courtyard.

Breakdown of Las niñas cantaban en el patio.

la niña

the girl

in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)

Questions & Answers about Las niñas cantaban en el patio.

Why use cantaban here instead of the past tense cantaron?

Cantaban is the imperfect past tense, which we use for habits, routines, or descriptions in the past. Here, it translates to "used to sing," showing this was a regular, ongoing activity. If we used the preterite tense (cantaron), it would mean they sang once at a specific, completed time.

What does the -aban ending in cantaban tell us?

The -aban ending shows that the action was done by "them" (in this case, las niñas) in the imperfect tense. For regular -ar verbs like cantar, the "they" form always ends in -aban.

Could cantaban also translate to "were singing"?

Yes! The imperfect tense doesn't just mean "used to do something." It also translates to "was" or "were" doing something. Depending on the context of the story, this sentence could perfectly mean "The girls were singing in the courtyard."

Does patio mean exactly the same thing in Spanish as it does in English?

They are similar, but in Spain, a patio is often an inner courtyard of a building or a school playground. Since the sentence talks about las niñas (the girls), it is very likely describing children playing in a schoolyard.