Imperfect: "used to V" and "was/were Ving"

Question

I just started to learn about "Imperfect". The teacher told us that "imperfect" is used to mean "used to V " or "was/were Ving". So, the following sentence: "Amy y yo jugábamos en el parque" can be either translated as " Amy and I used to play in the park" or "Amy and I were playing in the park."

My questions are:

(1) How do I know when the sentence is translated as "used to V" or "was/were Ving"?

(2) When I typed "We used to play in the park" by using SD translator, I got "Solíamos jugar en el parque." So, there are two ways to express "used to V"?

(3) When I typed "We were playing in the park" by using SD translator, I got "Estábamos jugando en el parque." So, there are two ways to express "was/were Ving"?

Answer 1

How do I know when the sentence is translated as "used to V" or "was/were Ving"?

By the use of continuous tense or not.

When I typed "We used to play in the park" by using SD translator, I got "Solíamos jugar en el parque." So, there are two ways to express "used to V"?

There are three ways: Solíamos jugar / jugabamos / a menudo jugabamos.

When I typed "We were playing in the park" by using SD translator, I got "Estábamos jugando en el parque." So, there are two ways to express "was/were Ving"?

Yes. Estabamos jugando / jugabamos. These structures are used when we want to indicate another action usually in preterito taking place in that time period, ie: Estabamos jugando en el parque cuando se cayó un arbol.

Context will usually tell you if the usage means habitually or just in the past, but in the strictest sense of grammar soler + infinitive / a menudo + imperfect are the best choices for indicating habitual action in the past.

Wonderful! To the point! Muchas gracias! - joygogo, Sep 16, 2013

Estabamos jugando en el parque cuando se cayó un arbol. = We were playing in the park when a tree fell down. (I put the translation here for myself to read.) - joygogo, Sep 16, 2013

Answer 2

Not everybody pronounces the B as a V, OK? Contrary to what many natives claim. What's more, some people will fluctuate between B and V without realizing.

We used to go to the park every Sunday = Solíamos ir or íbamos al parque todos los domingos.

We were playing in/at the park = Estábamos jugando en el parque.

I, he, she was

.........................................playing

you, we, they were

Correct?

"V" means "Verb" here. - joygogo, Sep 16, 2013

Ah, OK. :-) - chileno, Sep 16, 2013