Imperfect for present or future.

Question

When I read into this, I found it a little confusing, we would actually say, he was meeting the lawyer tomorrow, to mean, He is meeting the lawyer tomorrow.

I think we say it as it was a decision taken before the present or the future. So for once a literal translation would work?

Dave Peters · Answer

Kerry, I thought something similarly. The English text in the lesson uses the "present" to be understood as past (or future). That confuses me. I think we use more of a past progressive to represent a future or past event (which does relate to the idea of Spanish imperfect}.

Example:

Rather than say:

Elena will be here tonight, her flight lands at half past nine.

I would say:

"her flight was landing at half past nine", which could be used to indicate past or future.