Is the imperfect tense used as an expression in itself?
It's common to use the verb "soler" in the imperfect tense to express old habbits and simular stuff. But can the imperfect tense replace this expression competely by just saying the verb of the old habbit in imperfect?
Like in stead of saying "Solía tocar la guitarra", could you just say "Tocaba la guitarra"? Does it give exacly the same meaning?
Thanks !
3 Answers
There is a difference of nuance between the verb in imperfect and the use of soler before the infinitive verb. Using soler allows us more of a feeling of repetative action than the imperfect, although this feeling is slight. We also tend to use soler only with action verbs rather than stative verbs, ie: Yo solía ir al trabajo a las 7 cuando era joven. We would never say: Yo solía ser joven.
We could say: Yo iba al trabajo a las 7 ....., but this has a nuance of slightly lesser action although the meaning is basically the same.
In cases when discussing one past action taking place within the time frame of another, we use imperfect and preterite but not soler, ie: Cuando iba caminando, vi un choque de tres autos.
When I was young, I used to play the guitar. -- De jovencita solía tocar la guitarra.
When I was young, I played the guitar.--- De jovencita tocaba la guitarra.
In Swedish: När jag var ung brukade jag spela gitarr.
När jag var ung spelade jag gitarr.
I have thought for several hours on this, whilst cooking. I can't differentiate, neither in Swedish, nor in English, nor in Spanish. If the meaning is subtly different, please tell me. However, I think it may be possible to come up with examples where the difference does make a difference.
To me there is a subtle difference which allows them to overlap sometimes but not always.
Solía hacerlo- I usually used to do it, I used to do it often, I was in the habit of doing it
Lo hacía- I would do it, I used to do it, I was doing it.
But I am a learner also, so I would await other input as well
The first link especially has some discussion of the differences, pay attention to whether the answers are from a native speakers or learners. There are about 4 from native speakers that if you read all 4 of them you will get pretty good insight.
