I need help with a translation question. How would I say “I was putting on my shoes,” in Spanish??
I need to get this exactly right since it happens to be the punch line of a joke I’m going to try to tell in Spanish. (Don’t ask.)
I know I need to use the reflexive verb “ponerse” and of course shoes is “zapatos” but I want to get the tense -imperfect, I believe- and the wording exactly right.
As always, help in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Ponía en mis zapatos
According to the Alta Vista Translation website.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
You don’t need the “en,” and most Spanish speakers would say “the shoes” where we would say “my shoes.” (This is why I hate Babelfish.)
Imperfect: Ponía los zapatos.
Past participle: Estaba poniendo los zapatos.
Not being a native speaker, I can’t tell you which of these is more idiomatic, but I expect they’d both be understood.
Well, IIRC, imperfect tense is for an individual event, while the preterate is for something done over time. So, “I was putting on my shoes when the tree fell on him.” would use the first form, while “I was putting on my shoes before 8 a.m. most mornings.” would use the second.
Actually, if you mean you were putting your shoes on your own feet, you need to use a reflexive verb form, so the phrase would be:
“Me ponía los zapatos”
or
“Me estaba poniendo los zapatos”
The latter can convey in and of itself that you were in the middle of the act of putting your shoes on.
José
It depends what dialect of Spanish you want. Who is your audience?