Los chicos tuvieron muchas cualidades
Los chicos tuvieron muchas cualidades, y primero que tuvieron eran muy inteligente.
The boys had many qualities, the first was that they were very intelligent.
Please review and correct.
Thank you 
10 Answers
Sorry mean't tenían
Putting which past tense is correct aside for a moment, what does that last clause say?
...the first [quality] that they had: they were very intelligent.
I don't know what works there are far a punctuation: a comma, semicolon or colon. Without one of them the clause seems to missing some connective wording.
the first that they had was that they were very intelligent.
Don't we either need some additional punctuation or another ...era que...?
or it could be written as he wrote it in English:
...la primera era que eran muy inteligente.
Sorry mean't tenían
Los chicos teníamos muchas cualidades, la primera que teníamos eran muy inteligente.
Lazarus would you suggest teníamos'
I would rather write it as:
Los muchachos tenían muchas virtudes; sobre todo eran muy inteligentes
Not a correction as much as an attempt to "improve" the grammar and word choices.
(edit: changed "sobretodo" to "sobre todo")
Thank you all. I am referring to group of people who lived in a specific period in history.
Yes, but with preterite it sounds almost as if those guys only had those qualities for a period of time, after which, "suddenly" they lost it altogether, as if they expired. Preterite is fine if you have something like a seizure, which has a clear start and end, but not when you have qualities. This tense is practically unacceptable for things that define how you are.
Thank you all. I am referring to group of people who lived in a specific period in history.
No offence, but I have seen many mistakes in that dictionary already, including misspellings. I've checked this word against 7 of my trustworthy paper dictionaries, and in all of them say that "overcoat" (or similar) is the only meaning for "sobretodo". On top of that, the "Diccionario panhispánico de dudas" says it is a common mistake.
By the way, "sobre todo" here is writen in two words (otherwise it would be a kind of jacket).
I was actually in doubt about that, but the dictionary on this site apparently recognizes my spelling as valid: http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/sobretodo
Check the last entry. Do you think the dictionary is wrong, or maybe it's a regionalism'
Did they lose those qualities afterwards? I'm asking because preterite is used for actions finished in the past, so obviously, they had those qualities for a specific length of time, after which they no longer had them.
Also, you need to say "la primera" (even in English you don't say "first was", but "the first was".
By the way, "sobre todo" here is writen in two words (otherwise it would be a kind of jacket).
