"Próbowałam im pomóc."
Translation:I was trying to help them.
February 23, 2016
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This discussion is locked.
va-diim
121
Because próbowałem is an imperfective verb aspect in Polish, past continuous tense in English has an imperfective aspect. "I have tried..." is present perfect and is usually also imperfective aspect so shouldn't be wrong in this exercise. Although, in many contexts, the present perfect tense in English can have a perfective aspect as well or instead.
"Spróbowałem im pomóc," has a perfective verb, so it translates better as the simple past tense, "I tried to help them," referring to a specific event time and place.
va-diim
121
Próbowałam im pomagać, means that I've been repeatedly trying to help them over some period of time, such as months or years, for example.