Hola a todos,
Could someone translate these very similar small sentences?
1> Estuvé invitado
2> Yo estaba invitado
3> Invité
The only thing I know is
invitado is the Past Participle of "invitar"
and the three are all varients of "I was invited"
and #2 might translate as "I used to be invited"
Will
Invitado and similar

Will--13
July 21, 2014

ricardo-rich
July 21, 2014
Hola Will,
Your translations are correct. The only thing I could add, is that "invité' is the first person preterit of invitar which conveys an action completed with a definite time line. Invité a mi hermano a la fiesta. "I invited my brother to the party. Invitado is also a noun meaning guest. Los invitados, the guests.
Saludos,
Ricardo

Will--13
July 21, 2014
Thank you for your input Ricardo. But I am not understanding. May I trouble you to clarify how using the participle differs from using the preterit?

ricardo-rich
July 21, 2014
Hola Will,
Perhaps this will help: " A participle is a form of a verb that can be used in one of two ways: with an auxiliary verb to indicate certain tenses or as adjective to describe something. He "has closed" the door." He heard me through the "closed" door. That was a quote from a book. So, Estuve invitado is : I "was invited". Invité is "I invited". No auxiliary verb, just the past tense, in the preterit, of invite. ¿ Más claro? Espero que sí.
Saludos,
Ricardo

Will--13
July 22, 2014
Re the three tiny sentences I am embarrased number three got by me. Why I did not realize Invité is the simple "I invited" and of course not revalent to the discussion, I will never know. Oh well when one writes in a forum one must be prepaired to be embarrased.
Re the past participle thank you for that clarification.
Now please tell me if the following is correct. Do past participles opperate like verbs? If so I see estuve invitado, if the sentence was completed, needing a specific reference to time such as "Estuve invitado la semana pasada" -"I was invited last week". But estaba invitado if completed would call for no reference to time such as "Yo estaba invitaba -puedo entrar?
-I was invited -can I enter?"
Thank you Will

ricardo-rich
July 22, 2014
Hola Will,
There is no need to be embarrassed we all learn by mistakes. I make them. Estuve invitado does not need a specific time. It means "I was invited". It could be as you have said I was invited last week or just "I was invited". As stated, the participle works with an auxiliary verb or as an adjective. Yo estaba invitaba is not correct. I am unable to explain why, but somehow the common usage for to be invited seems to be " me invitaron "I was invited", nos invitaron, "we were invited" etc. Hopefully our friend and native speaker Cristian Montes de Oca will help us and clarify .
Saludos,
Ricardo

Ava Dawn
December 29, 2014
I found discussions about past participle. Very early on, someone answered encantada. Is this an example of past participle?

Robert-C7
December 29, 2014
Yes, that is an example of a participle. It is usually preceded by a helper verb. For instance, "estoy encantada" translates to "I'm delighted". Likewise, "estuve encatada" translates to "I was delighted".
Now, what about "estaba encatada"? I am thinking this means something along the lines of "I use to be delighted". But the discussion above says this usage is incorrect.
Then there is "voy a estar encatada" which is "I am going to be delighted".
Finally, we can add in the subjunctive: "espero que estés encantada" which translates to "I hope you are delighted".

Steven-W15
December 29, 2014
Will, where you were going with this in one of your above responses is a helpful way to understand this verb form. Here is an example:
- "Yo estaba invitado pero no quise ir." - I was invited but I refused to go.
The first part of the phrase "paints a backdrop / sets the background" to which you insert an action.
- "Yo dormía cuando sonó la alarma." - I was sleeping when the alarm went off.