No vimos nada desde nuestro asiento

Hola Bob M.

Great question! In the sentence "No vimos nada desde nuestro asiento", the English translation “We couldn’t see anything from our seats” is not meant to reflect literal grammatical necessity, but rather natural English usage.

In English, when something was not possible due to circumstances (darkness, distance, obstruction, etc.), it is very common, and often more natural, to use “couldn’t” instead of “didn’t”, even though Spanish simply uses the pretérito (vimos / no vimos).

So:

But depending on context, English often prefers:

Both are grammatically correct in English.
However, “couldn’t see” better conveys the intended meaning: lack of ability rather than lack of action.

That’s why the translation uses “couldn’t” here.

Let me know if you'd like more examples!

¡Buen finde!

Silvia