Imperfect & Preterit help?

Question

I don't understand which tense to use in these sentences and I am

Durante el huracán, ____ mucho mientras las calles se inundaban.(Llovía) Would the answer be in the imperfect tense? If so, please explain.

En la película romántica, la actriz ___ al abogado. (besó or besaba) Wouldn't the preterit tense be used because it is a completed action? Please explain.

Please fill out your profile so we may better help you. - ray76, Aug 9, 2015

Answer 1

For the first sentence I would use the preterite because it was raining during a specific time parameter that you specified as "during the hurricane."

The second sentence would be preterite also. It can be viewed as a single event.

In general the preterite is used for events that happened once at a specific time. The imperfect is seen as something that either happened a lot or has ambiguous beginning/end. Hope this helps.