test question for "we only wanted to help you with our advice"

Question

One of the test questions is, "We only wanted to help you with our advice." And it asks which form of the verb querer is correct.  It says that the correct answer is  "QUERÍAMOS".  I don't understand why you don't use "quisimos".  We wanted to help and actually did help, so it is a completed action.

Answer

Hola William

The nuance that the preterite of querer has when used in affirmative sentences like this one, is that it conveys the idea of either "trying to do something" or "had the intention to do something", but we translate it as a general "wanted" here, this is why the correct answer is the one in the imperfect tense. However, we will look into these test-questions again to see if we can add an extra hint to make it clearer. I hope that helps.

Saludos

Inma