One long term ongoing test for english students learning Spanish is the difference between ‘ser’ and ‘estar’. For me these two words remind me of studying physics—as you move up the levels they keep telling you to forget the previous rules you have already learned.
As if these two words weren’t confusing enough, you also have to adapt to a number of different ways of talking about the past in Spanish. What this means is that the translation of ‘was’ can present a challenge.
In today’s spanish theory podcast, we are focusing on the 4 possible past spanish translations of was. I’m going to give a number of examples of each to test and reinforce your knowledge.
The four possible translations of ‘I was’ in Spanish are:
Fui – The indefinido of ser.
Era – The imperfect of ser.
Estuve – The indefinido of estar.
Estaba – The imperfect of estar.
Here is the list of conjugations of ser in the past simple:
| Past simple of Ser | |
|---|---|
| I was | Fui |
| You were | Fuiste |
| He / She was | Fue |
| We were | Fuimos |
| You-all were | Fuisteis |
| They were | Fueron |
Here is the list of conjugations of ser in the past imperfect:
| Imperfecto of Ser | |
|---|---|
| I was | Era |
| You were | Eras |
| He / She was | Era |
| We were | Éramos |
| You-all were | erais |
| They were | eran |
Here is the list of conjugations of estar in the past simple:
| Past simple of Estar | |
|---|---|
| I was | Estuve |
| You were | Estuviste |
| He / She was | Estuvo |
| We were | Estuvimos |
| You-all were | Estuvisteis |
| They were | Estuvieron |
Here is the list of conjugations of estar in the past imperfect:
| Imperfecto of Estar | |
|---|---|
| I was | Estaba |
| You were | Estabas |
| He / She was | Estaba |
| We were | Estábamos |
| You-all were | Estabais |
| They were | Estaban |
If you really want to get the most out of today’s podcast, write out a few examples of your own to help embed what you have learned in your long term memory.
Podcast episodes mentioned in this podcast:
- Tips 009: Para Ser – In Order to Be.
- Tips 011: Estoy por – I’m up for…
- Tips 049: The Past Imperfect.
- Tips 055: Pretérito Indefinido – The Simple Spanish Past Tense.
Examples form today’s episode:
Last week I went to a party and it was a lot of fun – La semana pasada fui a una fiesta y fue muy divertida.
When I was young I used to swim a lot – Cuando era pequeño nadaba mucho.
Last week I was really busy – La semana pasada estuve muy ocupado.
I met a girl last week and she was very pretty – Conocí a una chica la semana pasada y ella era muy guapa.
Yesterday, I was at home alone when all of sudden I heard a noise – Ayer, estaba solo en casa cuando de repente oí un ruido.
In 2003, despite my money problems I was able to survive. It was thanks to a good friend who helped me – En 2003, a pesar de mis problemas de dinero pude sobrevivir. Fue gracias a un buen amigo que me ayudó.
At first I thought it was really boring but later it was much better – Al principio pensé que era muy aburrido, pero más tarde fue mucho mejor.
Well, it was a new dress – Bueno, era un vestido nuevo.
I had to go to class last night. The class was at 9 – Tuve que ir a clase anoche. La clase fue a las 9.
On Sunday, I was speaking with my mum for 3 hours – El domingo estuve hablando con mi madre durante 3 horas.
Last time I saw them, they were on the table – La última vez que las vi, estaban sobre la mesa.
I remember before she found her new job, she was very unhappy – Me acuerdo que antes de encontrar su nuevo trabajo, ella estaba muy descontenta.
When were you in class? – ¿Cuando estuviste en clase?
It was tuesday – Fue el martes.
My ex-housemate was never ready on time – Mi ex-compañero de casa nunca estaba listo a tiempo.
My great grandparents were from Scotland – Mis bisabuelos eran de Escocia.
What are some other examples of the spanish translations of was?
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I am working on the Imperfect in a lesson. Your example uses the past tense for a date. But this seems opposite –
“To indicate the time of day (and ordinarily the day of the week, date, etc.) when talking about the past.
Eran las seis de la mañana. It was six o’clock a.m.
Era lunes, el cinco de junio. It was Monday, June 5th.”
If the sentence were to continue to say It was six o’clock a.m. when the doorbell rang I can see it being the imperfect but stand alone I would think Ser >3rd person> Fue would be correct. Do you agree?
Thanks Rosemary, yes I agree. You are right. If we are talking about “setting the scene” for example “It was six o’clock when…”, “It was Monday when…” then we should use imperfect.
If we are explaining an event, “Yesterday, the class started at 6”, “The festival was last monday” then we should use indefinite past. Thanks for the question, keep up the good work.
I’m sorry, Rosemary, I didn’t understand your question completely. Do you mean something like the following sentences?
Fue las seis de la mañana.
Fue la una de la tarde.
It doesn’t sound natural even if it was one o’clock.
As Andrew says, we don’t use the past tense to indicate the time unless we are speaking about an event (expressed by a noun or a sentence) and it becomes the subject of the sentence::
Fue a las seis de la tarde cuando empezó el concierto.
El concierto fue a las seis de la tarde.
Los conciertos fueron a las seis de la tarde.
Notice that we use “a” before the time in the examples above, and we don’t in the examples below, where the event is not the subject of the sentence:
Era la una de la tarde cuando empezó el concierto.
Eran las seis de la tarde cuando empezó el concierto.
Good examples, Andrew! Ser and estar are really tricky!
Thanks Jorge! I think I have to revisit ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ every week and have been doing so for about 6 years 🙂
I totally understand. I can use ser and estar naturally, but I have to think a lot to be able to understand why and explain it to other people. And there isn’t always a logic answer!
Thanks Jorge & Andrew- I appreciate these types of discussions. It makes me rethink my understanding. Not a bad thing in my opinion. I think challenging yourself reinforces the concept. Interesting as well is to hear from a native speaker because the unnatural sound is worth knowing as well. Inthis example [Fue a las seis de la tarde cuando empezó el concierto.] I thought [cuando] was a trigger for the imperfect?
I totally agree with you, Rosemary: challenging yourself reinforces the concept. Never stop experimenting with the language!
I understand you thought that cuando was a trigger for the imperfect. There are so many examples in textbooks using cuando with the imperfect:
Cuando tenía 20 años, conocí a mi marido.
Cuando estaba durmiendo, sonó el teléfono.
But cuando has no influence there. We can actually use cuando with the other part of the sentence too:
Cuando conocí a mi marido, tenía 20 años.
Cuando sonó el teléfono, estaba durmiendo.
And there are sentences with cuando and no imperfect at all:
Cuando salí a la calle, cerré la puerta.
Instead of looking for certain words, I recommend you to ask what the verb expresses: situations, characteristics, actions repeated over time (habits) and actions in progress demand the imperfect. There are things that alter this rule, but I think this is the basic and most important one.
¡Ánimo!
Thank you for this. It is an excellent description of a tricky topic.
The one I’m really struggling with is: “Al inicio el partido era muy aburrido, pero más tarde fue mejor” and the particular use of fue va era in this case
– if you are using era to describe the scene why are they not both era in this sentence?
– on the contrary, I thought you could use fue when you are talking about an event that has a specific time mentioned, ie why doesn’t “Al inicio” count as that here – couldn’t you therefore use fue for both?
Any help would be much appreciated here, many thanks
Hola Jon, yes, this is a tricky topic and it is complicated by the fact that we can use both the past simple and past imperfect in certain situations. You’re right in saying that we are using “era” to ‘set the scene’ and as such we don’t need to ‘set the scene’ twice in the one sentence.
I wish to say the following – I ate in your restaurant yesterday and ordered a fillet of tilapia ( this my query) but what I was served was not tilapia. It was not tilapia but was bassa. Now ? Era, estaba ………?
Yes Brian, that sounds okay to me.