Pretérito vs Imperfecto, version n

Question

Still trying to wrap my mind around pretérito v imperfecto. If I said, "Comía tacos de chorizo", it would be imperfecto, because there is no specific time period mentioned. What if that sentence was preceded by, "Ayer en la mañana fui al Tacos Veloz para desayunarme."? Since the preceding sentence tells that it happened at a specific time in the past, would it then be correct to say, "Comí tacos de chorizo."?

On a slightly different example, one of the quiz questions here in SpanishDict.com says that, "En aquella época..." indicates a specific time period and therefore requires pretérito. That is confusing to me, because the translation for "epoca" seems to me to indicate a time period that is not at all specific. Because "epoca" has a beginning and an end, does that make it specific?

Grácias.

Answer 1

1. The pretérito is used when we want to talk about a completed particular action in the past.
   Comí tacos de chorizo. (= at some point in the past, the action was completed.)
2. The imperfecto is used, generally, when we talk about repeated action in the past where no particular time is specified.
   Comía tacos de chorizo. (= for instance: when I was a kid.)

When saying particular time in the past, we're implying finished time expressions like 2 hours ago, last day, last month, etc — but as for época, you can use both, as long as you clear the meaning of the utterance.

You can also think of the imperfect as "used to" like " I used to work out very day" and the preterite - jmaulano, Sep 5, 2016

Preterite: I worked out every day last week. The action began in the past and ended in the past - jmaulano, Sep 5, 2016