The difference between using 'soler' and using imperfect past tense?

Question

What is the difference in using 'soler' and the imperfect tense when saying what you used to do?

Answer 1

They are interchangable only to a certain point, ie: "Me sentía muy mal la última vez que me viste." There is no habitual action here.

"Cuando vivía en México, solía comer tacos al pastor." This is habitual as it happened very often.

I think "sentía" = was feeling and "solía sentir" = I used to feel - is this right? - ian-hill, Mar 3, 2012

Answer 2

On top of what JulianC has already said, I would like to add that even if you are trying to describe things habitually happened in the past, if you want to emphasize the "habitual aspect" of the action, you use "solía + action verb in infinite form"; otherwise, you just use the past imperfect of that action verb.