This is the 10686th most frequent Spanish word.
dedicaba
"Used to dedicate" or "was dedicating."
The word 'dedicaba' is used in the imperfect past tense to describe the teacher's habitual or continuous action of dedicating effort towards teaching passionately.
El maestro se dedicaba a enseñar con pasión.
The teacher devoted himself to teaching passionately.
'Dedicaba' here indicates a repeated or habitual commitment of time to an activity—practicing music—in the past.
Ella dedicaba tiempo a practicar música todos los días.
She used to dedicate time to practicing music every day.
In this sentence, 'dedicaba' is used to portray an activity that Juan habitually engaged in during a period in the past—writing stories in the afternoons.