Como fue/estuvo ?

Question

Hi,

My argentinian friend told me i should not ask "como te fue la comida" but rather "como estuvo la comida". What is the difference ? how do I know when and which one to use ?

How do i ask ?

• Como te fue el examen/Como estuvo el examen
• Como te fue la fiesta /Como estuvo la fiesta ?

Gracias

Answer 1

I think that there might be some confusion here as to what verb is being used when we use the expression "cómo te fue." It might be helpful to note that both the verbs "ser" and "ir" share the same forms in their preterit indicative conjugations. Armed with this knowledge, we might then realize that the difference between the expressions above cannot be explained in terms of the differences between "ser" and "estar."

Instead, we can begin to understand this expression better by realizing that the "fue" in question is not related to the verb "ser" but to the verb "ir." This leads to the understanding of the relationship between the two following expressions:

• ¿Cómo te fue? — How did it go (for you)?

• ¿Cómo te va? — How is it going (for you)?

Understanding this, we might note the following translations:

• ¿Cómo te fue el examen? — How did your exam go?/How did the exam go for you?

• ¿Cómo te fue en el examen? — How did your exam go? (literally: how did it go during/in your test?)

  • ¿Cómo te fue la fiesta? — How was the party? (literally: how did the party go for you?)

  • ¿Cómo te fue en la fiesta? — How was the party? (literally: how did it go at the party?)

We might then realize that an expression such as follows might come off sounding a bit odd:

• ¿Cómo te fue la comida? — How did the food/meal go for you?

Because of this, it might be better—as suggested by your Argentinian friend—to use the verb "estar" if our intention were to instead pose the question related to the quality of the food rather than to the events of the meal.

Actually now when you think about it, coming from the verb "ir", it makes much more sense. Thanks! - idanr84, Dec 21, 2013

Answer 2

Using present tense...
La comida es rica en este restaurante (The food is (normally) good at this restaurant). The implication is that the food in this restaurant is normally very good.

La comida está rica (The food is good (THIS time)). Not implying anything, I'm saying that the food THIS TIME is good, regardless of how it usually is.

In the past....
¿Cómo te fue la comida? How was the food (Normally, how was the food) doesn't really make any sense does it? Obviously the word 'normally' is an implied sense of things.

¿Cómo estuvo la comida? How was the food (this one time).

Then in both the examples i provided, the answer would be to use "Como estuvo" ? - idanr84, Dec 21, 2013

What would be a good use of "como te fue" then ? - idanr84, Dec 21, 2013

Answer 3

It should be either one of these:

¿Cómo te fue en la comida? or ¿Cómo estuvo la comida?

Now, can you translate that to English and tell me that you understand it?

I'll be waiting.

I guess one would be "how was the food" talking about the food itself, while the the other "how was the meal" talking about the event - idanr84, Dec 21, 2013

That's what observer said.... correct. - chileno, Dec 21, 2013

Answer 4

Plop.