It was to be?
How would you say this in Spanish? Would it be era a ser'
21 Answers
Comprendes'.-?
Well, Comprendo que estamos ante una categoría diferente de entra las ya muchas Perifrasis Verbales que conocemos. Lo que es comprensible ya que como todas las conocidas, éstas deben existir no a priori, sino a posteriori.
Iba does not necessarily indicate something went wrong (hence why I used it). It can be "It was going to be a romantic date, and both Eduardo and Rosa were anxious." As in the fact that it was definitely was going to be romantic and go well. Comprendes? 
May be I undrstand that manutd wants to say.
Iba a ser = everithing was ready, but... something went wrong.
Have you think that the date: Debería ser una cita romantica
Everithing is in favour, not foresee any problem, then all "debería" salir bien.
OK, thanks Benz for your help!
Iba a ser una cita muy romántica, y tanto Eduardo como Rosa estaban muy preocupados... sounds perfect.
If you don't want to leave any doubt about it you can say: "De seguro iba a ser una cita muy romática...."
Its on the first page.
Maybe if we had the whole sentence it would be easier to translate, anyway I think "iba a ser" is the best option for it.
OK, thanks!
Again, I think this is expressing more doubt than I wanted to do. I wanted to show that it was definitely going to be a good date.
(oh, and thanks for the correction on romántica, can't believe I did that
Another option:
Debía ser una cita muy romántica....
Iba a ser...that's the one I would have said.
I didn't really want to express doubt in the outcome, however.
This is a good question (now that we have the context), but I don't think "había de ser" is the meaning here. "Haber de" is more like "must," while "it was to be" as in this context means "It was expected to be" or "It was supposed to be." Dane's suggestion of "iba a ser" would certainly work here, but I wonder if there is a better fit.
not necessarily. hay, había, hubo by themselves in a sentence correspond to the english there is/are/was/were. haber de expressions, however, are another way of expressing a form of obligation, although in a softer way than tener que.
había de ser can be translated as 'it was supposed to have been' or 'it should have been'.
No, I think that would be "there was to be..." which doesn't quite fit what I wanted to say. Thanks anyways!
