Questions & Answers about La emperatriz era muy poderosa.
Why is era used here instead of fue?
Era is the imperfect tense of the irregular verb ser (to be). We use the imperfect here because it describes an ongoing characteristic in the past. It tells us what the empress was like in general, rather than talking about a specific completed event.
If I wanted to say "I was very powerful", would era change?
How does the word emperatriz relate to the word for emperor?
Emperatriz (empress) is the feminine form of emperador (emperor). Many masculine Spanish nouns that end in -dor change to -triz in their feminine form, just like actor becomes actriz.
Why is the word for powerful spelled poderosa?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since emperatriz is a feminine noun, the masculine adjective poderoso changes its ending to match, becoming poderosa.