Estaba, era, fue or estuve- Any suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by eiren on September 3, 2009 at 9:26am

Hello Andria!!

I think that you can use estaba, era, cantaba etc...when you mean "I used to sing" this would be similar to "Yo cantaba" but be careful because the translate isn't literal, I use this example to you understand the meaning of this verb time.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel on September 3, 2009 at 12:08pm

hi, this is my examples:

Cuando papa llego a casa yo estaba en mi recamara
En 1999, yo estaba trabajando en NISSAN.
Ayer, mi hermano estaba estudiando para su examen final.

Cuando yo estaba en la preparatoria, yo era porrista.
Cuando yo estaba trabajando en NISSAN, yo era gerente de ventas.

Mi hermano fue mecanico en GMC.
Mi hermana fue una alumna destacada.

Yo estuve en Londres en el 2001.
Yo estuve viendo el partido de futbol en mi casa.

bye.

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Permalink Reply by Ana on September 3, 2009 at 3:54pm

Hello Andria! How are doing?


ESTUVO = Acción que ocurrió en el pasado y que ya dejó de ocurrir.( Action that occurred in the past and left already happened.)
ESTABA = Acción que ocurrió en el pasado, pero puede seguir ocurriendo en el presente.( Action that occurred in the past, but may still be occurring in the presnt)
Ejemplo; ¿Has visto a Ana en la fiesta?
- Si, ella estuvo allí ( That means she isn’t there now, but she was there before)
- Si, ella estaba allï ( That means she can still be there)

FUE is the past tense of the verb TO BE or TO GO.
TO BE is the one you want to know about
- El fue mi profesor el año pasado
- He was my teacher last year
- This is used for an action which happened (and ENDED) in the past
ERA would be the equivalent of “USED TO BE” which is used to describe a certain condition or situation that happened simultaneously with another or when there is a change in the circumstances.
Ejemplo;
- Ella era muy buena estudiante
- She was/ used to be very good student.
- Which indicates that she no longer is.

I hope that is helpful for you
See you

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Permalink Reply by Yero on September 3, 2009 at 10:38pm

Hi andria :)

Ana's answer is great. I'll give you some more information...

Era = was (past tense of "to be") Yo era un estudiante = I was a student.

Estaba = was (past tense of "to be located at") Yo estaba en la tienda = I was at the store.

Fue = he/she went --> El fue a la tienda = he went to the store.

Fue is pretérito ( past) perfecto and era pretérito imperfecto.

For example:

"Las Casas fue gran defensor de los indios", the preterite treats the cause as a singular encapsulated event, even though it happened over a long time. I believe this emphasizes the historical nature of his cause; we are looking back on it from the present.

"El padre de Goya era pintor", the imperfect doesn't treat the profession as an encapsulated event; rather, it places the point of reference at one or more moments during the state in question. This suggests that the text may talk about events that happened during his time as a painter.

And "estuve" well...

For example:

I was very interested in Spanish last year

Would be:

Estaba muy interesado en español el año pasado.

or

Estuve muy interesado en español el año pasado.

If you use "estuve", there is a clear implication that you no longer are interested in Spanish.

"Estaba" would be used more in a narrative setting, with no reference to when you started liking Spanish or stopped liking Spanish. All we would know is that at this specific time (a year ago), you liked Spanish. If you said "Last year I went to Mexico because I was very interested in Spanish", you would use "estaba".

You say "estuve", because it's a state that is finished by the time of speaking. "Estaba" is used when I talk about an action or state that lasts for a longer period of time.

Take care... bye

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Permalink Reply by andria on September 4, 2009 at 3:51am

Dear Yero

Thank you very much . I think this is the best explanation of this i've had ,that includes paying for private lessons for the past three months.
You could say that fue in the preterito is equivalent to "were" The casas were great defenders of the indians.
Would that work in all cases that you use fue?

Thanks so much !

andria

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Permalink Reply by andria on September 4, 2009 at 4:01am

Hi Ana

Thanks for this , Knowing that Era is the equivalent of used to be makes all the difference , rather than thinking of it as four different was to say "was"

speak soon

andria

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Permalink Reply by andria on September 4, 2009 at 4:07am

Thanks Daniel.

good examples of the explanations, its definately making more sense now.

andria

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Gabert on September 4, 2009 at 4:40pm

One tip is this. Whenever you specify when the action began and ended, e.g., from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. or during the First World War, you need the preterite. Whenever a noun is modified by an adjective, you need ser. When you want to describe the result of a process, you need estar, even if the result of the change is something permanent (Ella está entrenada como profesora). Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish, an excellent book which I highly recommend, gives the following example. La tienda es cerrada. Upon reading this sentence, an image of a storekeeper locking the door should come to mind. La tienda está cerrada. This means that the store is closed but gives us no clue about when it was closed. It just refers to its condition of being closed right now.

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Permalink Reply by Yero on September 5, 2009 at 11:29pm

Hi andria :)
You're welcome.
Let'see: "The casas (if you use it as plural, "Casas" is a last name) were great defenders of the indians" would be: "Los casas fueron grandes defensores de los indios"

Take care... Bye

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