Question 1

Why does this sentence use the indicative era instead of the subjunctive fuera after todo lo que?

Accepted Answer

We use the indicative because this sentence states a known, established fact about the past. The speaker knows exactly what was actually eliminated yesterday. If we were instead talking about a future, unknown, or hypothetical situation, such as a command to eliminate everything that isn't important, we would use the subjunctive.

Question 2

The phrase todo lo que translates to "everything that", which implies multiple things. Why is the verb se eliminó singular?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, the phrase todo lo que functions grammatically as a singular concept. Even if it refers to dozens of items in reality, the language treats it as a single collective unit. Therefore, the verbs that relate to it, like eliminó and era, must be conjugated in the singular third-person form.

Question 3

Why use the passive se here with se eliminó instead of fue eliminado?

Accepted Answer

While you could grammatically say fue eliminado, Spanish strongly prefers using the passive se when talking about actions happening to inanimate objects without mentioning who performed the action. It is the most natural way to express the English passive voice in this context.

Question 4

Why is eliminó in the preterite tense but era is in the imperfect tense?

Accepted Answer

The verb eliminó is in the preterite because the act of throwing things away was a specific, completed event that took place ayer (yesterday). The verb era is in the imperfect because it simply describes the background characteristic or ongoing state of those items (whether they were an important possession or not) at that time.

Ayer se eliminó todo lo que no era una posesión importante.

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