Imperfect Tense ( I used to,,,,,,)

Question

I have seen the Imperfect Tense sometimes described as "used to do something" such as-I used to work in a bank when I was young.

Yo trabajaba en un banco cuando era joven.

Yo solía trabajar en un banco cuando era joven.

Are both sentences basically the same? What I am asking is, does the verb soler, conjugated in the Imperfect Tense to solía, need to be used with the infinitive to emphasize "used to".......or is the single verb conjugated in the Imperfect enough to get that meaning across? Solía trabajar vs trabajaba.

Answer 1

Not really. The way I understand it, "solía" has a sense of habituation, and the imperfect tense is more that something used to be, but now no longer is, without really stating anything about habituation, though the two often overlap anyway. Something could have been once the case over time in the past, but now isn't any longer, without having been a habit.

Really, "solía" is simply "to be accustomed", but in the imperfect tense, if that helps. "Soler" is the verb.

"Solía trabajar en un banco cuando era joven" has more of a sense of "I usually worked in a bank when I was young" or "I used to always work in banks when I was young", or "I was used to working in banks when I was young" and "trabajaba en un banco cuando era joven" has more a sense of "I used to work in a bank when I was young. It was true at one time, over a period of time in that it was not just once, and then it stopped being the case, and I'm saying nothing about how used to it I was."

In the present, you can see it more obviously. "Suelo llamar a mi madre por las mañanas." means "I usually call my mother in the mornings."

Answer 2

MyHeadAboveWater has the right idea, but we would never say "solía trabajar en un banco" because it was just one job done in the past with no reference to begin/end which doesn´t demand a habitual nuance. However, we can say "solía trabajar en bancos" because the fact that various banks were involved provides a habitual action.

Also for recounting two past actions (one happening within the timeframe of another) we don´t use "soler", ie: "Hoy cuando estaba en el banco, fue un robo."

Answer 3

I don't think solía is as common as the normal imperfect. I think it does convey nearly the exact same idea, as far as I can tell, although, it almost seems redundant to use "solía," as like you said, the imperfect itself already conveys habitual actions in the past.