Verb question

Question

What is the difference between "yo era" and "yo fui"? They both seem to mean "I was". I'm confused.

Answer 1

Era is the imperfect past, and fui is the simple past, or preterite. Preterite is used for actions that are viewed as having been completed in the past, and the imperfect is used for things that happened in the past over time, or used to be.

Cuando era joven, fui a París una vez. When I was young, I went to Paris once.

Well, I'm editing this because I don't want to be confusing. Both Ser and Ir use the same conjugation in the preterite and you are asking about fui as a conjugation of Ser. But my example uses it as a conjugation of Ir.

So, I guess to avoid confusion, I could say this:

Cuando era joven, fui feliz el día que fuimos a París. When I was young, I was happy the day we went to Paris.

Cuando era joven, ESTABA feliz el día que fuimos a París. The verb estar is used to express emotions as Paralee says in her videos :) - FELIZ77, Mar 21, 2013

good catch feliz. i didnt get the chance to read his whole explanation - Rey_Mysterio, Mar 21, 2013

Muchas gracias, Ray :) - FELIZ77, Mar 21, 2013

Answer 2

Fui yo. It was me

Fui a la cafetería...I went to the cafeteria

Cuando yo era niño... When I was little

Answer 3

Cuando era una bebita, el doctor creía que yo era una criatura normal.

When I was a baby, the doctor thought I was a normal kid.

Como niño de los años 1960, yo era un fanático de la ciencia ficción.

Growing up in the 1960s, I was a science-fiction fanatic.

Yo fui inspirado...

I was inspired...

Yo fui uno de los ocho pacientes.

I was one of eight patients.