Learn Spanish (Latin America): Cuando ustedes vivían en el campo, ¿eran campesinos? - When you lived in the countryside, were you farmers?

Cuando ustedes vivían en el campo, ¿eran campesinos?

When you lived in the countryside, were you farmers?

Breakdown of Cuando ustedes vivían en el campo, ¿eran campesinos?

ser

to be

vivir

to live / to be constantly (doing something)

in / on / at

ustedes

you (plural)

Questions & Answers about Cuando ustedes vivían en el campo, ¿eran campesinos?

Why do we use the imperfect verbs vivían and eran here instead of the preterite?

In this lesson, we are using cuando (when) to talk about a continuous block of time in the past, rather than a single completed event. Because living in the countryside and being farmers were ongoing states or habits, we use the imperfect tense. You can think of it as meaning "During the time that you lived..."

What verb is eran? It doesn't look like a normal imperfect ending.

Eran is the imperfect form of ser (to be) for ustedes, ellos, and ellas. Ser is one of only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense (the other two are ir and ver), so you just have to memorize its forms: era, eras, era, éramos, eran.

Why does ustedes (you plural) use the same verb endings as "they" (vivían, eran)?

In Latin American Spanish, ustedes is the standard way to say "you" to a group of people. Grammatically, it always uses the third-person plural verb endings, exactly the same as ellos or ellas.

Why isn't there an article before campesinos, like "¿eran unos campesinos?"