¿Cómo estuvo / fue / era la fiesta?
Priscilla wrote the following comment on one of the other posts:
"I just want to know when to use "fue" and "era". I was recently in a disagreement with a friend who says the correct way of translating "how was the party" should be "como estuvo la fiesta" and not "como fue la fiesta". I was taught otherwise in a textbook. So now I am confused. Some clarification, please".
My first reaction was that "¿Cómo estuvo la fiesta?" is the best choice, but wasn't sure why. So I asked my live-in research assistant (my Spanish wife) who is not a linguistic expert, and this is a plus for the kind of questions I ask her since I usually just get a native feel for things in her answers. Here is her reply, which seems to concord with my experience:
"If I asked "¿Cómo fue la fiesta?", I wouldn't be expecting a detailed answer, but something more like just "bien/mal". She then added as an afterthought "I probably wouldn't ask that question - I think I would usually ask "¿Cómo estuvo la fiesta?" and then the person might give me a more detailed answer like "Estuvo bien y no salimos hasta las 3 de la mañana" or something like that".
(Now back to me): the question ¿Cómo era la fiesta? would elicit an answer like "Habia mucha gente, casi todos músicos, y música en vivo pero había poca comida y ...", in other words, more complete, somewhat objective description of what the party was like as opposed to the subjective reply (read "opinion") to the "estuvo" question.
When you are beginning to study Spanish, practically everything about the differences in usage between Ser and Estar seems opaque. Then you finally get on in Spanish and largely sort out the differences in the present, but when speaking in the past the differences once again seem diffuse. I've learned as a general rule when trying to decide to decide between "fue" and "estuvo" is to rephrase the question in the present: for example, if you called your friend while she was at the party, what would you ask her? The question in present should be "¿Cómo está la fiesta?". If you asked "¿Cómo es la fiesta?", you would probably get a description similar to the "era" question above.
This is a tough subject when learning Spanish - nothing really black and white about it. It's a good sign that you are asking about it though.
Brad
