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Llovía cuando limpiaron los parabrisas.

Llovía cuando limpiaron los parabrisas.
It was raining when they cleaned the windshields.
From Lesson 324:Plural compound nouns·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Llovía cuando limpiaron los parabrisas.

Why is the plural of "windshield" just los parabrisas? Doesn't the noun itself change?
Compound nouns formed by combining a verb and a plural noun are invariable. This means their spelling doesn't change when they become plural. To show that there is more than one windshield, you simply change the article from singular (el) to plural (los).
The word brisas is feminine. Why does it use the masculine article los?
In Spanish, almost all compound nouns made of a "verb + noun" combination are masculine. Even though la brisa (the breeze) is feminine on its own, the new compound word automatically takes a masculine article (el parabrisas / los parabrisas).
What words actually make up the compound noun parabrisas?
It is formed by the third-person singular of the verb parar (to stop) and the plural noun brisas (breezes/winds). So a parabrisas literally translates to a "breeze-stopper"!
Why is llover in the imperfect (llovía) while limpiar is in the preterite (limpiaron)?
This is a great review of how the two past tenses interact. The imperfect (llovía) sets the background scene, describing an ongoing, continuous event ("it was raining"). The preterite (limpiaron) describes a specific, completed action that happened while that background event was going on ("they cleaned").

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