Breakdown of Me sorprendió que la ovación fuera tan larga.
ser
to be
largo
long
que
that / than
me
to me / me (direct object)
Questions & Answers about Me sorprendió que la ovación fuera tan larga.
Why do we use the imperfect subjunctive fuera here instead of the past indicative fue?
Expressions of emotion or personal reaction trigger the subjunctive in the clause that follows them. Because the triggering verb (sorprendió) is in a past tense, the dependent verb must be in the past (imperfect) subjunctive (fuera). If the main verb were in the present tense ("It surprises me..."), you would use the present subjunctive instead: Me sorprende que la ovación sea tan larga.
Why is the sentence structured as Me sorprendió instead of using Yo estaba sorprendido?
The verb sorprender operates just like gustar. The literal structure is "That the ovation was so long surprised me." The entire clause after que acts as the subject doing the surprising, and me is the indirect object receiving it. While you technically could say Yo estaba sorprendido de que..., the structure used here is much more natural and common in Spanish.
Why do we use a form of ser (fuera) instead of estar (estuviera) to describe the length of an ovation?
Could I use fuese instead of fuera in this sentence?