Telling time in the past

Question

I recently completed Lesson 1.8, in which it says how to tell time. For 1 o'clock, one uses singular (es la una), while for the others one uses plural (son las tres). However, I just read the reference article on imperfect, and it says this:

1. Telling Time and Dates in the Past

•Era las tres de la tarde. (It was three o´clock in the afternoon.)

Here, it uses era (singular), as opposed to eran (plural) right? So does it change in the past, or is the reference article wrong, or am I being a complete idiot and overlooking something obvious (it is 1:20 AM here right now)?

¡Gracias por la ayuda!

Answer 1

Hi Lea, you are right, please report this on this thread, good catch

Good catch...how do you say that in Spanish? Some form of pillar? pescar? - 0074b507, Jan 12, 2011

Answer 2

¡Hello!, It is 12 : 40 AM here where I am., Well, if the article says era las tres de la tarde I guess It's wrong because just as in the lesson of "hours" of the learning section says, when you are sayin the hour you say Son las and then the hour, and the only exception is the 1; you say es la 1 y... and then the hour. So It's the same in past tense when you say any hour but the 1, you say eran las 3, 4,5, etc., but if you are talking about the one You say era la unade la tarde o de la mañana or whatever. Hope to have helped. good night jeje

Answer 3

Eran is correct.