Preterite vs Imperfect! Can Anyone Confirm My Answers?

Question

In this packet I'm doing the heading says "El imperfecto" but the instructions say "Complete en el pasado."

So I was a little confused whether or not I only needed to use imperfect, or imperfect and preterit, could someone just check my answers here and make sure I'm using preterit in the right situations and imperfect in the right situations? Thanks! *The bolded words are what I inserted, the rest was given.

1. El general era alto y fuerte. 2-3. Él era muy joven. Tenía solamente veinticinco años.
2. Él siempre quería ganar. 5-6. Él estaba contento cuando ganó. 7-8. Estaba el verano y hacía mucho calor. 9-10. El general no estaba acostumbrado al color pero él seguía luchando valientemente.

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Oct 18, 2014

Answer 1

My guess is that they just want imperfect, some of the sentences have to be imperfect, some could be either, the one case you used preterit, it can be imperfect.

Él estaba contento cuando ganaba- He was happy when he was winning. He used to be happy whenever he won.

You could say Él estuvo contento cuando ganó- but that sounds a bit like he only won once- He was happy the time he won.

You typed "al color pero" instead of "al calor pero" but I assume that is not important.