Do I use estuve o estaba?
Hi there,
So I wanted your guys help on how to write this particular sentence in Spanish. What I want to say is that 'I didn't hear my friend because I was daydreaming' I want to know which of these if any are correct..
1. No oí a mi amiga porque estuve en las nubes
2. No oí mi amiga porque estuve en las nubes
3. No oí a mi amiga porque estaba en las nubes
4. No oí mi amiga porque estaba en las nubes
...I'd just like to clarify that here I am refererring to a specific moment which is why I have used the preterite for the verb 'oír'
Comments
This is a case of someone's state of mind (estar en las nubes) in the past. For that, the imperfect is used. That narrows it to 3 or 4. But because mi amiga is a direct object, the personal -a- has to be used. So only 3 is correct.
Estar en las nubes is an idiom and the link below shows it in context.
“No oà a mi amiga porque estaba en las nubes” is grammatically correct.
In the Spanish language you don’t really use this phrase; what you have written literally means that you didn’t hear him because you were literally in the clouds.
My advise to you is to use this instead, “estaba soñando despierto”. Most idioms can’t be translated but this is the Spanish equivalent to this one.