preterit vs progressive or what?!?
I was asked what my profession is. I responded: "Estoy jubilado. Cuando trabajé, era programadora de computadoras e instalé los sistemas operativos....". However, I was told that "trabajaba" is correct rather than "trabajé" and "instalaba" instead of "instalé". Now, in English, I would have said, "When I worked ... I installed ....", or if I wanted to use a progressive tense, "When I was working ... I was installing ....", and definitely indicated that was PAST and not current or future ....? Is the naked progressive okay, or was my listener being careless/casual? thanx mutch.
7 Answers
Hi reader
You should have said jubilada , you are a woman 
However, try to remember, whenever you can say" I used to" it must be imperfecto:
you could substitute:
I worked and installed...for " When I used to work I used to install.....
Cuando trabajaba, instalaba....
This would not be usual, but could be done, unlike here:
Yesterday I called my mother. the used to form would not be possible, so it is past simple in Spanish too.
Its ok to talk about the past using preterite if you think about the act as a singular event but since you 'used to work' as a programmer, this would probably indicate an ongoing action that is best described by the imperfect. The progressive in the past is used only to identify a time period when something else happened. For example, "se me cayó el teclado cuando estaba instalando el programa" Here, installing the program indicates when the keyboard fell. Hope this helps
As Heidi said 'used to' is a good indicator for the imperfect but also if you can add 'was' or 'were' plus the verb, and keep the intended meaning, that also can be a good indication to use the imperfect.
eg - when I 'was' working = imp
I may be wrong but 'trabajaba' and 'instalaba' are in the imperfect tense so they convey the meaning you want (I was working and was installing ) ..I think.
delete-already answered several times over.
Were you past actions habitual in nature or relating to a single, completed action in the past?
True, was working in English, evokes more of a ongoing in the past (progressive) sense, but Spanish also uses the preterite/imperfect for habitual/non-habitual differention as well as momentary/ongoing in the past.
That is why there are not clear cut rules saying that if you use the "ed" form of the past in English you always use the preterite, and if you use the was+present participle form of the Engllish past then you always use the imperfect.
The real issue here is one that will give you pause for quite a while to come..the difference between preterit and imperfect past tenses. The good news is everyone you talk to will still know what you want to say like 95% of the time even if you use preterit instead of imperfect, so no worries.
Really, preterit here just 'sounds' wrong.
To really analyze it, I suppose the 'real' reason would be that when you're saying something you used to habitually do in the past, this necessitates the imperfect tense.
If you're a professional killer, a hired gun that's killed many people and did it a lot, you could say - mataba para ganarme la vida. (imperfect)
If you killed a certain person, to express that, you would say for example - maté a John. (preterit)
Preterit past tense is for completed, concise, actions. I know that could be confusing because you might think..well, I don't work anymore, so that's completed because I don't work anymore. I know, no one said it was going to be easy!
And again, don't worry, you'll still be understood. I've heard many good speakers of spanish as a second language that still make 'ser'/'estar' errors and 'pret/imperfect' errors.
-Charlius-
I have concluded that the most accurate phrasing would require the imperfect to indicate the time frame (when I was working = cuando trabajaba) and preterit to indicate the installations (I /sometimes, not usually or often/ installed = instalé los ...). Is such a thing acceptable?? thanx much! 
