Breakdown of Dudábamos que el castigo fuera justo.
ser
to be
que
that / than
justo
fair / just
dudar
to doubt
el castigo
the punishment
Questions & Answers about Dudábamos que el castigo fuera justo.
Why do we use fuera instead of era or fue?
The main verb, dudábamos (we doubted), expresses doubt. Expressions of doubt require the subjunctive mood in the following clause. Because the doubting happened in the past, the second verb must be in the past subjunctive (also called the imperfect subjunctive). That's why we use fuera instead of a normal past indicative tense like era or fue.
Is fuera from the verb ir (to go) or ser (to be) in this sentence?
Here it is ser (to be). The past subjunctive forms for ser and ir are identical (fuera, fueras, etc.), just like they are in the preterite tense (fui, fuiste). You can tell them apart by context: describing a punishment as fair (justo) requires "to be," so we know it's ser.
Why do we use ser (fuera) instead of estar (estuviera) for the punishment being fair?
Why is the main verb dudábamos in the imperfect tense rather than the preterite?
The imperfect tense is used for ongoing states of mind in the past. "Doubting" was an ongoing mental state for "us" at that time, rather than a single, completed action with a definite start and end point. In Spanish, feelings, thoughts, and doubts in the past are naturally ongoing background states, so the imperfect is usually the best fit.
Could I say fuese instead of fuera?
Yes, you can! The past subjunctive has two sets of endings: the -ra endings (fuera) and the -se endings (fuese). They are perfectly interchangeable and mean the exact same thing. However, in Latin American Spanish, the -ra endings are much more common in everyday speech.
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