When do you use the imperfect tense in Spanish?

One of the main purposes of the imperfect tense is to show that an action has been repeated over a course of time in the past. It can be used, for example, when you want to express hobbies or habits in the past that you carried out continuously through a period of time. Here's an example: "Ella iba mucho a la playa cuando era pequeña." Translation: "She used to go to the beach a lot when she was little." Here, there are two imperfect verbs used- "ir" and "ser". "Iba" (imperfect conjugation of third person singular) is used in this case to indicate that "ella" went to the beach continously when she was little- it is a repeated action in the past. Similarly, "era" (imperfect conjugation of third person singular) is used to indicate that she was young over a certain period of time. Even though the period of time is not explicitly indicated, the use of "era" reflects an action (her being little) that took place in the past over a certain period of time.