"Mis amigos no me veían esa noche."
Translation:My friends did not see me that night.
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This sentence is very confusing for me.
My working understanding of the past imperfect is pretty much that of RocketLanguage:
- indefinite (no definite start or end date), or,
- continuous or repeated, or,
- taking place over a period of time, or,
- started in the past but continuing into the present,
BUT NOT
- events or actions that took place at a specific point in time, which would be the preterite.
So, how does a specific event or time like "that night" qualify for the imperfect past?
If the translation given was "My friends were use to not seeing me that night." I could sort of think that, for example, maybe Sunday was a family day and the speaker's friends were familiar with him not being out and about that day. It's a continuing or repeated absence.
However, "My friends were not seeing me that night." is the opposite of that meaning, isn't it? The given sentence actually seems to mean that a repeated or continuous pattern of seeing the speaker was broken, a preterite event.
Any enlightenment gratefully received! :)
The first thing is not to get hung up over another dumb sentence on Duo. If the goal is to understand what is said to you in Espanol, and to make yourself understood, then you are already there over this sentence. Everyone already agrees that the friends did not see the speaker that night. That is what the sentence says and means. If you would use the pretertite in real conversation, try it out. Surely you realize that this is not the only questionable sentence on Duo. Do not misunderstand, I love the Great Green Owl.