Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿La boda fue religiosa o solo en el ayuntamiento? - Was the wedding religious or just at the city hall?

¿La boda fue religiosa o solo en el ayuntamiento?

Was the wedding religious or just at the city hall?

Breakdown of ¿La boda fue religiosa o solo en el ayuntamiento?

ser

to be

in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)

solo

only

Questions & Answers about ¿La boda fue religiosa o solo en el ayuntamiento?

Why does this sentence use fue (from ser) instead of estuvo (from estar) for a location?

Normally, we use estar to talk about locations. However, a wedding (la boda) is an event. In Spanish, when we state where an event takes place or is held, we always use the verb ser. Because of this rule, the sentence uses fue rather than estuvo.

Could I use the imperfect tense era instead of the preterite fue here?

Fue is the natural choice here because the speaker views the wedding as a single, completed event. Using era would sound strange; it would imply you are asking for descriptive background information about an ongoing situation in the past, rather than asking about the facts of a finished event.

Shouldn't the word solo have an accent mark to mean "just" or "only"?

It used to! For decades, Spanish rules required an accent mark (sólo) when it meant "only," to distinguish it from the adjective meaning "alone" (solo). However, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) updated the rules and now recommends dropping the accent mark entirely, unless the sentence is genuinely ambiguous.

Does ayuntamiento refer to the physical building or the local government?

It can actually mean both! In this sentence, it clearly refers to the physical city hall building where the wedding was held. However, in other contexts, el ayuntamiento is commonly used to talk about the city council or local government as an institution.