Preterite after 'casi nunca'?

Question

I'm still often in doubt whether to use the preterite or the imperfect. In the reference section 'casi nunca' is listed as one of the phrases that trigger the imperfect, so I used it with the imperfect in 'Casi nunca se publicaban.. . tantos libros' , to find the suggestion to change it into the preterite ' publicaron'. I don't doubt Cogumela's expertise, but still I wonder why 'casi nunca' doesn't trigger the use of the imperfect in this instance.

Answer 1

Casi nunca se publicaban tantos libros sobre educación y métodos educativos con tan poco resultado

Seeeeee? I found it and I would have said:

Casi nunca se han/habían publicado tantos libros sobre educación y métodos educativos con tan poco resultado

Definitely past simple or present perfect, regional use, but not imperfect, as I said before, jeje, there is always an exception.

This event goes into the past and is real in the present.

If we are only talking about a past event, not real any more:

We used to eat a lot of sweets where we were children (not true any more)

Solíamos comer/comíamos muchos caramelos...

Thanks. - Castor77, Oct 19, 2011

Answer 2

Castor, can you publish the complete sentence?

Casi nunca is a typical structure that does trigger imperative...I am sure there are exceptions, jeje

The complete sentence is ' Casi nunca se publicaban tantos libros sobre educación y métodos educativos con tan poco resultado'. Thank you for the quick reply. But are you sure that it triggers an ' imperative'? ;) - Castor77, Oct 19, 2011