El médico explicó que la terapia era muy útil.
The doctor explained that the therapy was very useful.
Breakdown of El médico explicó que la terapia era muy útil.
ser
to be
muy
very
el médico
the doctor
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
explicar
to explain
útil
useful
la terapia
the therapy
Questions & Answers about El médico explicó que la terapia era muy útil.
Why do we use era here instead of es or fue?
The verb era is in the Imperfect tense. When reporting what someone said in the past (using a past tense reporting verb like explicó), a statement that was originally in the Present tense shifts to the Imperfect. The doctor's original words were la terapia es muy útil (the therapy is very useful). Because we are reporting it after the fact, es becomes era.
Why is explicó in the Preterite tense rather than the Imperfect?
We use the Preterite (explicó) because the action of explaining was a single, completed event in the past. The doctor made this specific statement at a specific moment, and then the action was over.
Why doesn't the adjective útil change its ending to match the feminine noun terapia?
Why do médico, explicó, and útil all have written accents?
They follow different Spanish accent rules. Médico is stressed on the third-to-last syllable, which always requires an accent. Explicó is stressed on the final syllable and ends in a vowel, which is standard for many Preterite tense forms. Útil is stressed on the second-to-last syllable but ends in a consonant that isn't N or S, so it needs a written accent to show the unusual stress.
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