El monumento fue fascinante.

Breakdown of El monumento fue fascinante.

ser
to be
el monumento
the monument
fascinante
fascinating

Questions & Answers about El monumento fue fascinante.

Fue can mean both 'it was' and 'it went'. How do I know which one it is here?
You can always tell from the context. Because fascinante means 'fascinating', saying 'The monument went fascinating' makes no sense. Therefore, fue is being used as the past tense of ser (to be).
I thought we use the imperfect tense (era) for descriptions in the past. Why does this sentence use the preterite tense (fue)?
This is a great catch! If you say El monumento era fascinante, you are giving a general background description. By using the preterite fue, you are summing up a completed event, like a specific trip or tour you took. It feels more like saying 'My experience of visiting the monument was fascinating.'
Since monumento is a masculine word, shouldn't the adjective be fascinanto?
Not all adjectives change their ending to match gender! Adjectives that naturally end in -e, like fascinante (fascinating) or interesante (interesting), are gender-neutral. You use the exact same word whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

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