¿Qué estabas haciendo?
To ask "what were you doing?" in Spanish, say ¿Qué estabas haciendo?
¿Qué estabas haciendo? asks someone what they were busy with at a moment in the past.
What does it mean word for word?
Qué means "what", estabas means "you were" and haciendo means "doing".
How does it change in a sentence?
estabas haciendo is the past progressive, formed with the imperfect of the verb meaning "to be" and the gerund haciendo.
What mistakes should you avoid?
The English "what was you doing" is not standard English, and Spanish also needs the verb to match "you", which is estabas.
Did you know?
- The verb hacer in haciendo is used in a wide variety of expressions that have nothing to do with 'doing' or 'making', such as hacer sol to say it is sunny.
- In some Spanish-speaking cultures, asking ¿Qué estabas haciendo? with a specific tone can be a playful or suspicious way to imply someone was up to no good, similar to 'What were you up to?'
- The word qué shares a common ancestor with the English word 'what' and the Latin 'quid', meaning they both trace back to the same ancient root used to ask questions.
Examples in context
- No contestaste, ¿qué estabas haciendo?You didn't answer, what were you doing?
- Te vi muy ocupada, ¿qué estabas haciendo?I saw you looking very busy, what were you doing?
Example conversation
Alejandro calls Sofia to ask why she missed his call.
- AlejandroHola Sofía, ¿qué estabas haciendo?Hi Sofía, what were you doing?
- SofíaEstaba cocinando la cena.I was cooking dinner.
- AlejandroAh, por eso no contestaste.Ah, that's why you didn't answer.
- SofíaSí, no escuché el teléfono.Yes, I didn't hear the phone.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries qué, CC BY-SA 4.0.
