Fui o Estaba
Hola todos.
I have been learning Spanish for the past few months and I have now come across 'Fui' and 'Estaba' I have seen some sentences such as ' Yo estaba en España ' and ' Yo fui a la playa'.
When should I be using Estaba and when should I use Fui, I understand Fui in meaning 'I was' and Estaba is also the same but which situation would I use them as 'I went to the beach' and 'I went to Spain' are quite similar.
7 Answers
It gets worse: there are a bunch of translations of was. You need to separate estaba and fui in your mind. Let's look at four translations of "was" - two from estar, two from ser.
ESTAR
Estaba: this is used to describe WHERE you were or HOW you were during an UNSPECIFIED time period. Estaba en españa. Estaba muy malito.
Estuve: this is used to describe WHERE you were or HOW you were during a SPECIFIED time period. Estuve un año en españa. Estuve muy malito ayer
SER
Era: this is used to describe WHAT you were or WHEN it was during an UNSPECIFIED time period. Era profesor. Eran las 8 de la mañana.
Fui: this is used to describe WHAT you were or WHEN it was during a SPECIFIED time period. Fui profesor durante 2 años. Fue un año complicado.
Fui, as you note, is *also the past of IR. Here it translates as "Went". It's a totally different verb. I know it's a pain, but remember that in English, we have a similar issue with "been". This can be the past participle of be or go.
I have been tired lately (be) I have been to the bank (go)
Estaba en españa. -- We don't know when, we just know you were there.
Estuve en españa en enero -- You were there specifically in January.
Surprisingly, you could also say:
Estaba en España en enero
And even simply Estuvo en España
In my experience, I've found that at least in day-to-day conversations, Spanish speakers see very little difference, if any, between estaba and estuve in this particular context. I've asked several people of different age groups, education levels and from different countries, and their answers were the same. For all practical purposes there is no difference in this context.
From an academic standpoint I'm sure someone would say otherwise. But in all honesty, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about this one. I promise you, I've done enough of that for both us already, lol.
Honestly, ser and estar, the imperfect and preterite can not be fully understood from reading textbooks. Get the basics down and then just start using them and pay attention to them in speech and in writing. It's something you just have to "get the feel of".
These will probably still confuse you after 3 years, let alone after a few months. I still get them wrong from time to time.
Add "hacer" to the group:
Había mucho tráfico. There was a lot of traffic.
Don't worry about it too much, eventually, the correct verb will just start to sound right to your ears.
Fui = I went AND I was.
That's probably the source of your confusion.
Other than that, most of this issue can be resolved by looking into the difference between Ser and Estar and the Imperfect vs the Preterit.
Once you sort out those 3 things your confusion should be gone.
Fui orginates from the verb: Ser which in Spanish that means to be. Estaba originates from the verb: Estar which is another Spanish meaning for to be. Ser is used usually for more permanent conditions, and Estar for more temporary ones. Fui is also in the preterite tense, this is generally used for things that happened in the past, and only once. Estaba is in the imperfect tense, a tense describing things that happened multiple times in the past, usually. I dont know if this will help with what you asked but I have a rhym which is how you feel and what you do always use the verb estar. I think this is right but any other people can correct me to as I haven't been doing spanish for long either
Thank you everyone for your comments on this, it looks as though I am not the only person who has trouble with this. Happy new year all!
That one is a little tricky because, of course, there are two words for "to be", ser and estar.. Estar is used in conjunction with location. However the preterits of ser ad ir (to go) are the same. So in this case ir is used and "Fui a la playa" means "I went to the beach."
