it was....

Question

there are a couple different ways to say "was" era, estuvo, how do you know which ones to use and when?

Answer 1

There's no quick answer. The best thing is to work through the lessons on this site. There's a lesson on ser vs. estar that will be useful and various lessons on the different past tenses. Working though those lessons and then practicing them will be massively more useful than any quick answer we could give.

Answer 2

Hi Alena

Jason is right when he says that there is no quick answer to this question, and that it will probably require a bit of study on your part. Besides the video lessons available here, there are also some useful reference articles that you might be interested in having a look at.

Ser vs Estar

More Ser vs Estar

Preterit (Simple Past)

Imperfect

Pluperfect Subjunctive

Each of these pages are available under the reference section of this site. If you want to browse the reference section yourself, scroll over the "More" tab at the top of the page and click on "Reference".

I hope that you find what you are looking for. Good luck.