Estaba vs. Era

Question

What is the correct usage? i.e.: Ella era feliz or Ella estaba feliz. Many thanks.

Answer 1

Well both estaba and era are conjugations of the imperfect tense so it's not so much about what 'time period' is referred to but what you want to know is which fits your sentence better 'ser' (era) or 'estar' (estaba).

One general suggestion would be to use ser to CID - Classify, Define and Identify, estar for situations and states in time and space.

So if you want to classify or define the girl as a happy girl

eg - I knew her when she was young and she was happy (a happy kind of girl)

you would use era.

If you wanted to talk about a certain situation or state, at a specific time -

eg when the girl used to stay at her grandmother's she was happy

• then you would use estaba.

I hope that helps - for further info this article might be useful as it contains the points I referred to and expands on them: Ser vs Estar

Answer 2

Both are right but era sounds more to a longer period of time, like :

Ella era felíz cuando era niña. (She was happy when she was a girl.)

and estaba is used to an specific moment like in:

Ella estaba felíz en la fiesta antes de perder su cartera. (She was happy at the party before she lose her wallet.)

she losT - Eddy, Dec 8, 2010