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¿Ustedes no estuvieron en sus asientos?

¿Ustedes no estuvieron en sus asientos?
Weren't you all in your seats?
From Lesson 103:The preterite of tener, estar, and hacer·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about ¿Ustedes no estuvieron en sus asientos?

Why is the verb estuvieron instead of estaron?
Estar is highly irregular in the preterite (simple past) tense. It changes its stem to estuv-. Since the subject is ustedes (you all), we add the ending -ieron to make estuvieron. You will see this 'u' stem in other common verbs too, like tener becoming tuvieron.
Why does the sentence use sus asientos for 'your seats'?
In Latin America, ustedes is the standard word for 'you all', and it takes third-person grammar. Just like you use estuvieron (the same verb form used for 'they were'), you use the possessive adjective sus to mean 'your (plural)', even though sus can also mean 'their' or 'his/her'.
Why do we use a form of estar here instead of ser (fueron)?
Even in the past tense, the rules for locations stay the same. We use estar to talk about physical location, like being in your seats (en sus asientos). You would use fueron (from ser) to describe past characteristics or events.
Is it normal to start the question with Ustedes no... instead of putting the verb first?
Yes! In Spanish, you can often keep the exact same word order as a regular statement to ask a question, just changing your tone of voice. Placing the subject pronoun (ustedes) right before the negative verb (no estuvieron) is very common and natural.

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