Fui... Why not era ?

Question

In this Shakira's song " Inevitable " Creo que alguna vez fui infiel Why not era infiel? Please explain. I was a doctor = yo era un medico. I was Infidel ( or any adjective ) = fui or era ?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

"Fui" is the preterite, which implies something that happened once at a certain time and not again, whereas "era" is the imperfect, which implies something habitual in the past.

In this case she is saying she was unfaithful once (one time only, not a bunch of times). If it were in the imperfect (era), she would be saying something like "I used to (habitually) be unfaithful," which given the context of the song, doesn't make a lot of sense.

So basically you could use either "era" or "fui", but the tone and meaning of the sentence would change considerably.

By the way, I love that song of Shakira's! It's sad but sweet...

Hope this helps! - PumpkinCalabaza, May 4, 2012

Good explanation! - Noetol, May 4, 2012

Good answer. - annierats, May 4, 2012

Thank you! :) - PumpkinCalabaza, May 5, 2012

Answer 2

era is imperfect so it is far in the past but fui is preterite so its in the past but it has just happened so shes probably referring to something that happened a while ago but not recently