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Me gustaba la pelota, por eso yo siempre la llevaba.

Me gustaba la pelota, por eso yo siempre la llevaba.
I liked the ball, so I always carried it.
From Lesson 108:The imperfect tense of regular -ar verbs·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Me gustaba la pelota, por eso yo siempre la llevaba.

Why is the imperfect tense used for both gustaba and llevaba here?
The imperfect tense is used for ongoing states and past habits. Me gustaba describes an ongoing feeling in the past (you liked the ball over a continuous period of time). Llevaba describes a repeated past action, which is triggered here by the word siempre (always).
There are two words spelled la in this sentence. Are they doing the same thing?
No! The first la is the feminine word for "the", going with pelota (la pelota means "the ball"). The second la is a direct object pronoun meaning "it". It goes right before the verb llevaba to replace the ball (la llevaba means "I carried it").
Why is the pronoun yo included? Couldn't we just say siempre la llevaba?
Yes, you could leave it out! However, for regular '-ar' verbs in the imperfect tense, the "I" form and the "he/she/it" form are exactly the same (llevaba). Adding yo makes it completely clear that "I" was the one carrying the ball, rather than someone else.
Why does "so" translate to por eso in this sentence?
Por eso literally translates to "for that" or "because of that". In Spanish, it is the most natural and common way to say "so" or "therefore" when you are connecting a cause (liking the ball) to a result (carrying it).

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