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Paseaba cuando el tribunal anunció el veredicto.

Paseaba cuando el tribunal anunció el veredicto.
I was walking when the court announced the verdict.
From Lesson 351:Subjunctive with doubt (dudar que)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Paseaba cuando el tribunal anunció el veredicto.

Why is paseaba in the imperfect tense but anunció is in the preterite?
This sentence shows an ongoing background action interrupted by a sudden event. We use the imperfect (paseaba) for the action that was already happening, and the preterite (anunció) for the single, completed event that happened in the middle of it.
How do we know paseaba means "I was walking" and not "he/she was walking"?
The imperfect forms for "yo" and "él/ella/usted" are identical (paseaba). Without a pronoun like yo or él, you have to rely on the wider context of the conversation. Here, the translation tells us it is "I", but in real life, you would add yo if it was not already clear who was walking.
Could I use caminaba instead of paseaba here?
Yes, but there is a slight difference in feel. Caminar means to walk in a general sense or to get to a destination. Pasear specifically means to go for a stroll or walk for pleasure, which fits nicely with an unhurried background action.
Since the current lesson is about doubt and the subjunctive, why is there no subjunctive here?
Because the speaker is stating an unquestioned fact about what happened in the past. There is no trigger expressing doubt (like dudaba que) to make us use the subjunctive, so we stick to the normal indicative tenses to simply report the events.

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