Estuve haciendo

Estuve caminando 3 horas

In short:

Estuve haciendo is used instead of the simple Indefinido (hice) to show, that an action was continuous.

El escritor estuvo escribiendo el libro tres años — The writer was writing the book for three years

In the Module I Section 20 of this tutorial we observed the estar + gerundio construction, where estar was conjugated in Presente, forming the Presente Continuo tense.

Estoy estudiando español — I’m learning Spanish

Ahora mis padres están durmiendo — Now my parents are sleeping

Estar + gerundio shows that an action is a long process which is happening now.

This construction can be used with any grammar tense. All you need to do is to put the verb estar in a form, different form Presente. For example, in Indefinido or Imperfecto.

Indefinido Continuo

Estuve estudiando español — I was learning Spanish

Imperfecto Continuo

Estaba estudiando español — I was learning Spanish

There is some difference between these two sentences. We are going to explain it in two steps. In this lesson we’ll take only Indefinido Continuo, and the next lesson will be dedicated to Imperfecto Continuo.

estuve haciendo

In some situations you need to say, that something was happening for quite a long time, rather than happened instantly. The simple Indefinido might not be very suitable. To show explicitly that it was a long process, use estar + gerundio, where estar takes forms of Indefinido.

Compare:

Escribí una carta — I wrote a letter

Estuve escribiendo una carta — I was writing a letter

Miguel vio una película — Miguel watched a movie

Miguel estuvo viendo una película – Miguel was watching a movie

The first lines of these examples don’t show any continuous duration, it doesn’t really matter how long the actions lasted. We used Indefinido, as if something was done at once.

The second lines are expressed with estar + gerundio. That means, that we deliberately point out, that the actions were long enough.

With Indefinido Continuo it’s very convenient to use some time markers, which can specify a determined time period.

Estuve hablando con María dos horas — I was talking to Maria for two hours

Fernando estuvo esperando a su mujer toda la noche — Fernando was waiting for his wife all night

Forms

Let’s conjugate some verbs in Indefinido Continuo.

comprar

yo — estuve comprando

tú — estuviste comprando

él, ella, usted — estuvo comprando

nosotros — estuvimos comprando

vosotros — estuvisteis comprando

ellos, ellas, ustedes — estuvieron comprando

Try it yourself:

mirar

subir

leer

dormir

In fact, it’s nothing else, than a conjugation of the verb estar in Indefinido, but adding a gerund, that is never changed.

Try it yourself:

I was listening to music all evening

The children were playing football for three hours

Yesterday it was snowing all day

What were you doing all week?

We were traveling throughout Europe all month

Reflexive verbs are conjugated the same way, just don’t forget to put the se pronoun either before estar, or right after the gerund.

Estuve duchándome = Me estuve duchando

Te estuviste peinando = Estuviste peinándote

Ana y José se estuvieron mirando = Estuvieron mirándose

hice vs. estuve haciendo

When we were talking about the usage of Indefinido in the previous lessons, we mentioned that it’s used, when actions lasted for a determined period of time.

Viví en Alemania cinco años — I lived in Germany for five years

Mi hermano trabajó en la compañía aérea 10 meses — My brother worked in an air company for 10 months

These sentences are completely correct from the point of view of the Spanish grammar. The actions here last for quite a long time. However, their duration isn’t stressed out grammatically. These sentences will have almost the same meaning, if we say them using estar + gerundio.

Estuve viviendo en Alemania cinco años — I was living in Germany for five years

Mi hermano estuvo trabajando en la compañía aérea 10 meses — My brother was working in an air company for 10 months

The difference is that in the second examples the duration is stressed out explicitly, but in the first ones it’s only visible with the time markers.

Use estuve haciendo when you say something in Indefinido, but need to express a long duration of an action explicitly.

Ayer llovió todo el día — Yesterday it rained all day (the duration isn’t stressed out explicitly, but it’s implied from the context)

Ayer estuvo lloviendo todo el día — Yesterday it was raining all day (the duration is stressed out grammatically)

Manuel paseó por el bosque

Manuel estuvo paseando por el bosque

Nos preparamos para el examen

Nos estuvimos preparando para el examen

Try it yourself:

I chose the place

I was choosing the place

She learned new words

She was learning new words all morning

We talked about dogs

We were talking about dogs