Preterite or Imperfect: "The video showed..."

Question

I am unsure whether to use the preterite or the imperfect form of mostrar in the sentence "The video showed what was done." Thanks!

Answer 1

It really depends somewhat on the rest of the conversation.

If this is just one in a series of past events and it is completed and we move on to the next event then it is preterite.

If you are painting a background of things that happened in the video and the duration is indefinite "the video was showing what was done when some other event happened or the video was showing what was done over an indefinite period of of time with no start or stop time mentioned then the imperfect might be appropriate.