imperfecto vs preterito

Question

Do I use fueron or eran in this instance? I am confused, please help! thank you! Mientras la voz hablaba los niños escuchaban con los ojos tan grandes como platos y durante el resto del vuelo, ¡eran/fueron unos niños modelos!

Answer 1

Use "eran" if you are describing the children and the discription is important.

Use "fueron" if you are mentioning the fact that they were model children.

Although there is some description here the context seems (to me) indicating the fact that they were good kids.

Here's a link to an article I wrote about the Preterite vs. Imperfect tenses.

Link to Preterite and Imperfect tenses

If the story was about how the children are not well behaved but they behaved well at the latter part of the story, should I use eran instead? Thank you so much! - jessicafanfan, Feb 17, 2017

To talk about behavior, I would use the verb "portarse bien/mal" and the tense that would give either the description or the fact. If you want some more examples of when to use the imperfect in this case, PM me. - Daniela2041, Feb 17, 2017

Answer 2

"durante el resto del vuelo" indicates that they behaved well only at the latter part of the story, so in this case use "FUERON", because the children in the story are not role models all the time.