era vs fue do I understand it correctly?
I'm still having some trouble with when to use era vs fue.
Imagine this situation: I was with a friend in Colombia where we both learned to speak spanish. A year later we are talking about our time in Colombia
When we were in Colombia our level of spanish was the same
Is it correct if I use fue in the situation where I know my level of spanish is better now. Like this: Cuando estuvimos en Colombia, nuestro nivel de español fue igual ( pero ahora el mio es mejor que el tuyo)
But in the situation where I don't know what his level of spanish is at the moment, is it correct to use era. Like this:
Cuando estuvimos en Colombia nuestro nivel de español era igual ( tal vez aun lo es, tal vez ahora mi español es mejor, no lo sé)
Did my brain just make up this theory or is it a correct way of thinking? :D Thanks!
On a side note: it's estuvimos instead of estaba right? Because we are talking about a finshed period of time ( the few months we were in Colombia)
1 Answer
No doubt about it use "era".
Why?
learning a language takes time, a long period of time. The level of knoweledge is changing from the first studying day till the day that you becomes fluent, so the action is not finished yet.
For example if you say"
When we were in Colombia our phisical level was the same, but my personal mark was better than yours. I beat you by two seconds.
Cuando estuvimos en Colombia nuestro nivel físico era el mismo ( era because our physical level is changing) pero mi marca personal fué mejor que la tuya ( the record/mark is something finished and inmutable thing). Te gané por dos segundos
