I thought that “era” was always used for past actions without a specific time, and “fue” was used to describe a past action with a specific time, so please enlighten me why “fue” was used in this sentence: “fue una sabia decision” meaning “that was a wise decision” but “era la eleccion obvia” meaning “that was an obvious choice.” Neither mentions a specific time. By specific time, I mean descriptions of time, e.g." last month" or “last year.” Why is “fue” used in one sentence and “era” in another, when they both show the same past tense in English?
Although neither sentence specifies a specific time, the wise decision is something that takes place at a point in time, and an obvious choice is something that exists over a period of time.
More discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Spanish/comments/528t0n/imp_vs_pret_era_la_elección_obvia_fue_una_sabia/
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Thank you.