"Como era"

Question

Is this a real phrase? I read it's supposed to mean "Since he was", but I'm not entirely sure. Can you guys help me out'

Answer 1

Yes, Gustav, by filling in your "..." I can conceive a sentence where "Como era" would mean "Since he was ...." Think of "como" as "like, as."

Example: "Como dije, ...." = "As I said, ...." or "Like I said, ...."

Now, "Como era analfabeto, no pudo leer la carta." = "As (since) he was illiterate, he couldn't read the letter."

And, "Como no sabe leer, tampoco va a responder a la carta." = "Since he doesn't know how to read, he's not going to answer the letter, either."

Look in a good Spanish-English or Spanish-Swedish dictionary that has usage examples of "como." That will be very helpful to you, as "como" is a very versatile word.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply. I don't remember the context, but I found this sentence starting with "Como era...". Yeah, I agree, no context would leave you in the dark, so to speak.

Answer 3

Is this a real phrase? I read it's supposed to mean "Since he was", but I'm not entirely sure. Can you guys help me out?

Written like that, it means "like he/she/it was":

como = like
era = he/she/it was

However, since you are not telling us where did you find those words, chances are that you found them in a chat or somewhere in the Internet, and they were written by someone who doesn't care about proper spelling, so there are alternative readings:

¿Cómo era?
cómo = how
era = he/she/it was

As you can see, that accent does more than just adding a stroke: now it is a whole new word ("how" instead of "like"): "How was he/she/it'"