Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): Antigamente ele levava um cartão velho como brinquedo e fingia pagar no banco imaginário. - In the past he carried an old card as a toy and pretended to pay at an imaginary bank.

Antigamente is an adverb meaning “formerly,” “in the old days,” or “back then.” You use it to talk about habits or situations that took place regularly in the past. In English it often corresponds to “used to.”
Example: Antigamente eu morava na cidade. → I used to live in the city.

Why is levava used instead of levou?

Levava is the imperfect past tense, which describes ongoing, habitual, or repeated actions in the past (“he used to take”). By contrast, levou is the perfect (preterite) past, indicating a single, completed action (“he took [once]”). Since the sentence talks about what he habitually did as a child, the imperfect levava is the correct choice.

What does levava um cartão velho como brinquedo mean? Why do we use como here?

“Levava um cartão velho” means “he used to take an old card.” The phrase como brinquedo means “as a toy.” In Portuguese como + noun indicates role or function—exactly like “as a …” in English.
So the whole segment means: “he used to take an old card as if it were a toy.”

Why is fingia pagar followed by an infinitive instead of a conjugated verb?

The verb fingir (“to pretend”) is typically followed by another verb in the infinitive form (fingir + infinitive). Here fingia pagar literally means “he pretended to pay.” If you wanted a full clause, you could say fingia que pagava (“he pretended that he was paying”), but using the infinitive is more concise.

What’s the difference between fingia pagar and fingia que pagava?

fingia pagar uses fingir + infinitive (“to pretend to do something”).
fingia que pagava uses fingir que + clause, with a conjugated verb in that clause.

Both are correct. The infinitive form is shorter (“pretended to pay”), while que + clause can add nuance or more detail to what is being “pretended.”

Why is no used before banco imaginário, and what does it mean?

No is a contraction of em + o (in + the). So no banco imaginário means “in the imaginary bank.” You could also say em um banco imaginário (“in an imaginary bank”), but the contraction no + definite article is very common in Portuguese when you consider the imaginary bank as a single, specific place in the child’s mind.

Could banco here ever mean “bench” instead of “bank”?

Yes, banco can mean both “bank” (financial institution) and “bench” (a seat). In this sentence, the context pagar no banco (“pay at the bank”) makes it clear it refers to a bank, not a park bench.

What does brinquedo mean?

Brinquedo means “toy.” It’s the everyday word for any plaything a child uses. In this sentence, the old card becomes his brinquedo—his toy.

What’s the nuance between cartão velho and cartão antigo?

Both velho and antigo can translate as “old,” but:

velho is more neutral, everyday “old” (like “old shoe”).
antigo often implies something from a former time or historic (“ancient,” “former”).

Using velho here simply stresses that the card was worn out or used up, not necessarily historically significant.