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La excursión por las ruinas fue fascinante.

La excursión por las ruinas fue fascinante.
The excursion through the ruins was fascinating.
From Lesson 102:The preterite of ser and ir (fui, fuiste)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La excursión por las ruinas fue fascinante.

How can I tell if fue means "went" or "was" here?
The verbs ser (to be) and ir (to go) share the exact same forms in the preterite past tense. You have to tell them apart by context! Since it makes sense to say the excursion "was" fascinating rather than "went" fascinating, we know this fue comes from ser.
I thought we used era for descriptions in the past. Why use the preterite fue here?
Normally, you do use the imperfect tense (like era) for background descriptions. However, when you are summarizing a specific event that is completely finished (like a trip, a party, or an excursion), Spanish speakers use the preterite fue to give their overall rating or summary of how the completed event "was."
Why does this sentence use por instead of para?
Por is the go-to word for movement through, around, or along a place. Because the tour is moving through the ruins, we use por. You would use para if the ruins were simply the final destination you were traveling towards.
Since excursión is feminine (la), why doesn't the adjective change to "fascinanta"?
Adjectives that end in -e in their base form (like fascinante, inteligente, or grande) don't change for gender. They stay exactly the same whether they describe a masculine or feminine noun. You only add an -s if the noun is plural!

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