Why is this verb Preterite and not Imperfect here?

[Turoko]

"Sabíamos que Sebastian tenía un piso en Madrid. Pero nunca mencionó que tenía un gato viviendo allí".


Why 'mencionó' was used and not 'mencionaba'?


and why the second 'tenía' is Imperfect and not Preterite?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Mencionó" because "mencionaba" would need to specify the times when he used to avoid mentioning the existence of his cat. "Mencionó" underlines "nunca" in the sence of "not once".

"Tenía un gato..." because the speaker talks from the point of view during which the cat used to live there. If they said "tuvo un gato..." might have suggested a short period of time.

[Shazam]

^^ Exactamente!!

Translation:

We know that Sebastion used to have a flat in Mardrid, but he never mentioned that he used to have a cat living there.

"Mencionó" means "He mentioned" "Mencionaba" means "He used to mention or he was mentioning. You can see why using "Mencionó" would be correct, right? It makes since.

"Tenia" means "He used to have or was having" "Tuvo" means "He had" You can see why tenia would be correct, right?

Sorry I couldn't explain that more, but i'm very tired and my brain is kind of fried. Just got off from working a busy shift. Maybe, I can explain it a little better later on.