Fui...or fue?
In the song "You let me go" by Jesse and Joy, a line is translated as follows: "You say it was me, and it wasn't me, that I never really loved you." The original is: "Dices que fui yo, y no fui yo, que nunca te amé de verdad."
Why isn't it Dices que yo fue (or even yo era)? I have the sense it should be it was, so it would take the third person singular. Using the first person singular gives me the feeling that it means "I was I/me."
When I inputted both forms into the translator ("Fui yo, y no fui yo"...versus "Fue yo, y no fue yo") I got the same translation.
3 Answers
Hi rollo, you cannot compare Spanish with English on this.
if you want to emphasize you say in English :
it was ME.
In Spanish we conjugate verbs...so the "it" makes no sense.
Fui yo.
Yo fui.
both are possible, but the first would stress the pronoun, because of the simple fact that we do NOT use subject pronouns.
And , depending on context, the second sentence might mean: I went.
The first sentence would never be interpreted like that.
Perhaps this very recent discussion will help you a little.
It seems that the only role that yo can play in the subordinate clause (the it was me part of You say it was me) is that of subject. Thus ser must be conjugated in the first person.
Or perhaps, as suggested by Lazarus in the discussion linked above, fue is permitted, but fui is preferred.
Hello I am Analia from Argentina. I wold like to practice inglish on line with you. Can you interesting?
Analia
