Spanish language Q&A Forum

The title of my question is only an example of several variations I've found on the same theme: when to use reflexive and when to use estar+participle? 

Me sorprendí cuando me propuso matrimonio

Estaba sorprendida cuando me propuso matrimonio

It seems to me that the reflexive above suggests more of an action (it surprised me...), while estar+participle suggests a state (being in a state of surprise).  

Could you explain and demonstrate by example how one might be chosen over the other?  

Also, the reflexive seems to be prompting me to add que+subjunctive (Me sorprendí que me propusiera matrimonio), but the participle version does not.

As you see, I'm a little confused and I wonder if my confusion comes from learning Latin American Spanish? The participle seems to occur more often when I read that variant. 

Saludos a todos

Hello, like many people I struggle between choosing the imperfect or indefinido tense.

In this exercise, the sentence below was correct,

"pero ayer el guiso de mamá tenía carne,"

Please would you help me understand why the imperfect tense is correct, I had understood that the use of a time clause "ayer" would have made it indefinido.

Thanks

It says in the lesson that you can use "mientras" or "mientras que" with the subjunctive to mean "as long as" or "provided that". Is there any difference between these two forms?