Éramos or estábamos
How would you say ' "we used to be friends"'? Would it be Éramos amigos "or estábamos amigos OR EVEN "fuimos amigos".
I guess you could use any but once again, no idea why - please help if you can...
5 Answers
It would be "éramos amigos."
Ser is used in friend situations.
Ser amigos=to be friends Ser amigo de Alicia= To be Alicia's friend
Therefore, you would always use ser.
And it would be in conditional, not preterite tense, since you are saying "were" friends, in essence. "We used to be friends" is the same as saying "We were friends." As I learned in my grammar class, "was-ing and were-ing uses conditional" since it was continuous in the past.
So therefore you would say "Éramos amigos."
Yes this is a really tricky subject isn't it.
I'm still learning too but I'd say éramos 
Ser with nouns because they are used to classify, identify or define someone or something and you are using 'amigos' which is a noun/
Imperfect because you're not focusing on the beginning or even the end of the friendship just that at one stage it was ongoing and that's the time you're referring to. That's why the imperfect is often referred to as the present being shifted back into the past.
PS Fuimos would work under some circumstances, perhaps if you limited the sentence with a definite time period, Solo fuimos amigos por unos cuantos días.
If you want some practice this podcast might be useful
I hope that helped
Thing of "being a friend" as an occupation.
As you know, occupations take the place of "ser", so éramos is correct.
And "fuimos" amigos would be used if you view that friendship as completed. (Say something tragic happened between you and your friend and you guys have gone separate ways.)
This is just another example that has to do with the "completedness"
Pensé que éramos amigos.
pensé would be used over pensaba because I no longer think we are friends, but éramos is still used because our friendship is not yet over. Tricky, right?
maybe this will help you era, fue
éramos amigos
