Gusto vs. gustaba
I cannot grasp when to use gustó and gustaba, as in: "What I liked about this book is..." ("Lo que me gustó /gustaba de este libro es...") How do i know which tense to use? In this context, could I use either tense interchangeably?
1 Answer
Hi, there. I wouldn't say that they are interchangeable here (or many other places). If you are trying to say "What I liked about...etc.", I would use gustó. If you were to use gustaba, to me, it would seem as if you were saying "What I was liking about this book (initially or xyz days/years ago), but then... (xyz occured)...." or "What I used to like about this book was...". The imperfect tense is often used in regards to things you used to do (habitual actions - I used to read this book all the time. I used to like this book) or to set a scene of some type (i.e., I was reading the book when the phone rang).
I hope this helps some (and if not, I sure hope someone who can better explain comes along).
Open to corrections
