More on preterite vs. imperfect

[Oldman]

Hopefully w/o appearing to be too much of a lost cause, would someone (Rusty?) review my answers?

1) I used to CELEBRATE my birthday and many people WOULD always attend. Imperfect then preterite
2)Wen he WAS 6, friends CAME to a party...imperfect then preterite
3) It WAS a nice day and everyone WAS very excited. ..imperfect then preterite
4)They were all HAVING a good time when someone BROKE a glass..imperfect then preterite
5) I BROKE the glass and everyone SHRIEKED...preterite, preterite
6) It WAS a wonderful party.....preterite

[Rusty]

You should practice writing these in Spanish, since there isn't an imperfect tense in English.

The first sentence has two verbs that are imperfect; the third, as well.
The rest are correct.

[Oldman]

Thanks...9/11 isn't bad...guess you are getting thru to me......The sentences were in English to start with...( I don't like the textbook)

Can you explain why the second WAS in sentence 3 is imperfect ? Is it because even though everone was excited , we don't really know when they began getting excited, nor if they even ever stopped being excited ?

[Rusty]

Is the narrative talking about their ceasing to be excited? If not, the action is unfinished (imperfect, not complete).

Ask yourself, "When during the nice day did everyone stop being excited?"

Don't jump out of the time frame being described in the narrative.
The answer to "When did everyone stop being excited?" is, "Nothing was said about that." So, that means the action was ongoing, concurrent with the time frame of "the nice day." Neither the day nor the excitement had an end in the narrative.