Can somebody please in describe the Spanish imperfect tense in depth?

Question

Please be sure to explain how it's different from the preterit tense. Also please give all of the common scenarios in which you would use the imperfect tense. Ex simultaneous actions, interuptions etc. I do already somewhat know imperfect, but I'm struggling with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Answer 1

I can see why you are having trouble with this. Even people who have lived in Spanish-speaking countries for a couple of years sometimes have trouble with this.

For me, the key that helps me to remember is that you use the preterite tense when it's important to know that the action was completed, while you can use imperfect whenever you don't want to say that the action was completed, either because it was ongoing at the time, or because it doesn't matter (because it's habitual, etc.)

El fue presidente por dos años.
The preterite is appropriate here because you are talking about a period of time, which naturally implies a completion.

Cuando yo era niña, yo tenía una muñequita.
In the first clause of this sentence, I am talking about something that was ongoing at the time I was talking about (I was talking about the period of time during which I was a child).
In the second clause, I'm talking about something that was more or less habitual. It doesn't matter when I stopped having the doll, so I use imperfect.

Spanish speakers use an imperfect-preterite combination in a lot of cases where English speakers would use a past progressive-simple past combination.
Instead of
Yo estaba estudiando cuando oí el grito.
they will often say
Yo estudiaba cuando oí el grito.

If you are trying to express the meaning of "used to be" or "would" to describe situations in the past, always use imperfect:
I used to be really strong. My brother and I would lift 100 pounds every day.
Yo era muy fuerte. Mi hermano y yo levantabámos 100 libras por día.

I hope this has been helpful. E-mail me if you have more questions.

Answer 2

Preterite tense is normally used to describe something that happened once in the past i.e. Se rompió el vaso or Ayer me levanté a las ocho de la mañana. Imperfect is used to describe events that happened continually in the past i.e. Yo vivía en España or Antes ella estaba muy contenta con su aparencia.