Tenses of Era and Estaba

Question

When do I use era and estaba? I am confused since my friend told me this

Tus emociones estaban confundidas y tenias miedo.

But my other friend said

Tus emociones era confusión y tú sentiste miedo

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Feb 17, 2017

Answer 1

We use ser to indicate the nature of something / someone and estar to indicate a condition of something / someone or to set the past time frame in which another past action takes place, so era and estaba are the past imperfect conjugations.

I wouldn´t say either of your two examples, they sound strange. A more natural way to say them would be, ie: Estabas confundido por tus emociones y tenías miedo / Tus emociones estaban confusas y te sentiste miedoso.

Note that these are just examples because to provide the proper nuance you need to give more context.

:) - rac1, Feb 17, 2017

Answer 2

Tus emociones estaban confundidas y tenias miedo is correct because estaban is the ellos form, used for plural nouns. EX: Los chicos estaban altos. There are multiple children so you use the ellos form.

Tus emociones era confusión y tú sentiste miedo seems a bit odd because the sentence translates to 'Your emotions is confused and you feel scared.' Also, emociones is plural so I think that you would use estaban.

The first one is most likely correct in my opinion.

Answer 3

Hi To answer this you would have to know exactly what you are trying to say in English to know which tense you need to use. Is it a statement or a question for example. Give more context please. Cuando era joven estaba un chico travieso When I WAS young I WAS a naughty boy. Being young was being young it is fixed where as being naughty was an option Read about Ser & Estar in it's present tense as someone has already suggested and that should give you an idea how to use it in the past. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Have a look at this.

Ser vs Estar

Ser vs Estar