Spanish Language Question

[croyde]

A year and a half of Duolingo and some actual classes and I've got to a bit that I'm confused about.

I used to play.

I played.

Both appear to be Yo jugaba.

Eg:

De niño, yo jugaba en el campo.

As a child, I used to play in the field.

Yo jugaba en el campo.

I played in a field or I used to play in a field?

The aba, abamos, aban endings etc are confusing me.

Or is it just my dependency on DuoLingo.

Gracias.

[Duke of Kidderminster]

croyde said:

A year and a half of Duolingo and some actual classes and I've got to a bit that I'm confused about.

I used to play.

I played.

Both appear to be Yo jugaba.

Eg:

De niño, yo jugaba en el campo.

As a child, I used to play in the field.

Yo jugaba en el campo.

I played in a field or I used to play in a field?

The aba, abamos, aban endings etc are confusing me.

Or is it just my dependency on DuoLingo.

Gracias.

Not quite as straightforward as that.

I used to play would be "yo solia jugar", but that is an English way of talking. In some cases you could use 'jugaba' to mean the same, but that is not really the Spanish way of thinking.

The difference between the imperfect 'jugaba' and the preterite 'jugué' is when the action occurred. For imperfect, you are NOT saying that you used to play, but that you played at some time in the past. You haven't defined when that event actually occurred. For the preterite, you played a game of tennis yesterday at 2pm, it is more precise.

[croyde]

Gracias