In this case we aren’t talking about duration, we’re not trying to emphasize anything, it is simply to say how the event was, to describe the period of time in past.
We use the preterito or the indefinido to talk about something that has happened in the past. Events are always specific periods of time and that’s why we use the preterito here. Right? A festival can be an all-day event. The reason is because events happen or last for a specific period of time, the duration of an event, generally, can be from 30 minutes to two hours, three hours, ten hours in the case of a festival. – * Estuvo is also possible here – WHY? YOU MIGHT BE ASKING ♦ El día fue* bonito (The day was beautiful). ♦ La clase fue* interesante (The class was interesting). ♦ La fiesta fue* divertida (the party was fun). Whenever we want to describe an event or a specific period of time in the past, we are going to use the pretérito or indefinido past tense. There are many other events and examples, but these are just a few to give you an idea. Un juego o partido de fútbol, rugby, cricket = a soccer or rugby or cricket game/match.
Let’s have a look at some example of events so you can understand how to use these verbs:Įl cine = going to the cinema is an event. It can be an event or a specific period, something that took place for a specific period of time in the past. The second difference is to talk about events in the past in Spanish. Therefore, we can’t use FUE in these cases. Here we need to use the imperfecto form of SER which is ERA because we’re describing objects (the house, the car, and the ring) in the past in Spanish. ♦ El anillo era de oro (The ring was made of gold).Īnd it’s incorrect to use FUE in these examples: ♦ La casa era blanca (The house was white). When we describe something or someone in the past in Spanish, we’re going to use the imperfecto tense and not the preterito. If you want to describe objects in the past we’re going to use the imperfecto tense and not the preterito tense and that is because, for descriptions, that is, when we describe things, one of the main differences between the preterito and the imperfecto is their use for descriptions. The first difference we’ll see today is to describe objects in the past in Spanish. 3 DIFERENCES BETWEEN ERA Y FUE NUMBER 1: OBJECTS So, the next question we need to ask ourselves is: When do we use the imperfecto and the pretérito or indefinido? We’ll analyze the difference between the pretérito with FUE and the imperfecto with ERA in 3 specific situations. ♦ Mi boda fue uno de los mejores días de mi vida (My wedding was one of the best days of my life). ♦ La fiesta fue el sábado (The party was on Saturday) ♦ Ella era muy tímida cuando era niña (She was very shy when she was a little girl)Īnd FUE is conjugated for he and she as well in the third person singular, but for the pretérito/indefinido past tense. ♦ Él era jugador de fútbol (He used to be a soccer player) ERA is conjugating the third person singular for he and she of the imperfecto past tense. Now that we have established when we use the verb SER in Spanish, let’s talk about these 2 verbs conjugated in different past tenses in Spanish.
We’re going to use the verb ‘SER’ (to be) to talk about characteristics or for descriptions in Spanish, if we want to describe a person, in terms of physical characteristics, appearance or personality traits or if you’d like to describe a place or a thing we’ll always use the verb “SER”. ♦ Él/Ella fue (he/she was) WHEN TO USE THE VERB SER IN SPANISH ‘Era’ is then conjugated in the third person singular of the imperfecto and ‘fue’ in the third person singular of the pretérito or indefinido ‘ERA’ and ‘FUE’ are two verbs conjugated in the past tense of the verb SER (to be), but remember that we have two simple past tenses in Spanish, we have the imperfect and we have the preterit which is the simple past also known as pretérito or indefinido.