En cuales situaciones se usa el pretérito imperfecto?

Question

¿Se puede alistar las situaciones en las cuales a uno le corresponde usar el imperfecto y no el pretérito?

Answer 1

También se pueden usar las siglas WATER. Cuando hablas de lo siguientes temas.

Weather

Age

Time

Emotions

Repetition

Answer 2

Generally speaking, the way I teach the difference is that the preterit (simple past tense) is one and done, whereas the imperfect is things you used to do or would do several times.

Ayer fui al cine (one time). En Madrid, yo iba cine todos los sabados.

Yesterday, I went to the movies. In Madrid, I would/used to go the movies every saturday.

The imperfect has several other uses. I'm forgetting some, but I'll give you three.

One of them I call Storytime, I forgot the textbook term. When you're setting up a story or giving background information/narrative you use the imperfect.

Era un día perfecto, los pajaros cantaban, el sol brillaba, Caperucita Roja saltaba,

It was a perfect day, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, Little Red Riding Hood was skipping....

Another one is simultaneity: ayer yo escucaba la radio mientras (key word, while) cocinaba. I was listening to the radio while I was cooking.

Interruption (this one you use both): Estaba cocinando/cocinaba cuando la radio se rompió. I was cooking when the radio broke.