Era vs Fue

Spanish is a romance language which evolved from the different dialects of the Iberian Peninsula. It spread to other parts of the world through the expansion of the Spanish Empire. It is an inflected language that has a two-gender system.

The verbs in the Spanish language are marked for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number. They either end in –ar (first conjugation), -er (second conjugation), and –ir (third conjugation). They have seven tenses, namely; present tense, present perfect tense, past perfect tense, future tense, conditional tense, preterite tense, and imperfect tense.
Preterite tense and imperfect tense are two past tense forms of verbs. Preterite tense is used for single events that happened in the past in a specific amount of time. It is used when narrating individual events and to mark each beginning and ending of an action.

The imperfect tense is used for events or actions that happen constantly and for those that pave the way for other actions. It is also used to describe an event or a person in the past and his emotional and mental state during that time.
Let’s take the case of the Spanish verb “ser,” which means “to be” in English. For example, it is used to relate to the essence, the origin, and the physical description of things and events that happened. Its first person indicative imperfect tense is “era.”
“Era” is used to describe how things or persons were. It is pretty much like talking about a timeline, and it is used to serve the first person (yo) and third person (el, ella, ello). It is roughly translated as “I/he/she/it used to be.”

Here is another example: “Yo era muy activo.” I used to be very active.
The third person indicative preterite tense of the verb “ser” is “fue.” “Fue” is used in narrating an event that happened in the past and how it happened. It is that certain point in time when the action took place, and it is only used in the third person singular form. It is the verb used when indicating something that is permanent or an event that cannot be changed. Roughly translated, “fue” means “he/she/it was.”
Here is another example: “Fue amor a primera vista.” It was love at first sight.
The distinction between “era” and “fue” can be confusing because Spanish verbs not only have several tenses, they not only indicate the action but also include other information about when it happened and who made it happen.

Summary:

1.“Era” is the imperfect tense of the Spanish verb “ser” while “fue” is its preterite tense.
2.“Era” is used to describe how things were or how a person was while “fue” is used to narrate an event that happened in the past and how it happened.
3.“Era” is used to serve the first person and third person while “fue” is used to serve only the third person singular.
4.“Era” is translated as “I/he/she/it used to be” while “fue” is translated as “he/she/it was.”

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