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Ayer vimos los escombros de la iglesia vieja.

Ayer vimos los escombros de la iglesia vieja.
Yesterday we saw the rubble of the old church.
From Lesson 242:Past duration (hacía... que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ayer vimos los escombros de la iglesia vieja.

In English, 'rubble' or 'debris' is usually an uncountable singular word. Do I always need to use the plural escombros in Spanish?
Yes, escombros is almost always used in its plural form when talking about the ruins, rubble, or physical debris of a destroyed building. You will rarely use it in the singular.
Why is it iglesia vieja instead of vieja iglesia? Does the order matter?
Yes, the order changes the meaning. Placing vieja after the noun (iglesia vieja) means the church is physically old or ancient. If you put it before the noun (vieja iglesia), it implies it is your 'former' church or one you have attended for a long time, regardless of when it was actually built.
Why doesn't the past tense verb vimos have an accent mark?
The verb ver (to see) is an exception in the preterite tense. None of its forms take an accent mark (vi, viste, vio, vimos, vieron) because they are short roots that don't follow the standard accent rules for regular past tense verbs.
This sentence just uses the simple past. How would I use the 'hacía... que' structure from this lesson to say 'We had been looking at the rubble for two hours'?
You would say Hacía dos horas que veíamos los escombros. You combine Hacía, the amount of time (dos horas), the word que, and the imperfect tense of the verb (veíamos) to describe an action that had been continuously happening in the past up to a certain point.

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