"La cena estuvo muy buena."

Google translate uses "era" here. Seems like a fundamental description and of something that will always be true. That makes me think "ser" but the rules are so complex I'm open to anything being right here. "La cena era muy buena" has 2,830,000 google results and "La cena estuvo muy buena" has 160,000 results. Close enough to still be ambiguous to me. "Era" is the Imperfect and "estuvo" is the Preterit. Though the distinction is lost on me.

Because in spanish ESTAR is most used than ES .... But these words are the same, For example nobody here,( In MEXICO ) Says ¨la cena era muy buena¨, It is most normal say : la cena estuvo muy buena.... PD: I live In Mexico

Maybe a native speaker will come along to help. I believe the use of estar must change the meaning. Perhaps the dinner is not good all the time :)

Good question. I learned the use of estar would suggest that dinner was particularly good on this night.

You would use ser ordinarily but the use of a estar makes it more emphatic ie that it was a really really good dinner.

Era may convey the meaning that it was good before, but is no longer.

The use of 'era' is also correct, even a better translation in this case.

and also great. I was counted wrong for that

The meal was very good was my answer and it was marked wrong! What is the difference between a meal and a dinner? To me they are the same thing. Help anyone?

It marked me wrong for that answer. Is it poor grammar?

Really and very are not really the same.

Fui means "i went or i was" like "yo fui al parque- i went to the park" ir " yo fui muy feliz - i was very happy" and estuvo means that something or someone was something " el estuvo en la luna - he was in the moon" in this case estuvo was correct because it says that the dinner was good. Hope it helped.

I have the same problem

khaakenajaf- When the action is finished, we have to use preterito perfecto simple ( estuvo). Estaba is used when you say : esta semana estaba enferma., you're still in this week. Last year, this moment is passed, you would say : el año pasado (yo) estuve enferma. Past is used when the accent is finished or the moment passed. - preterito imperfecto ( estaba), is used if the day isn't finished, Sorry but it's hard to explain.

Best as I can dig up, "está bien/está buena" is simply the idiomatic phrase for food that tastes good. That is, the choice of estuvo here is not particularly related to the usual rules for ser vs. estar.

Estuvo is preterite tense; estaba is imperfect. The former is for (past) actions with a definite beginning and end.

The problem is duolingo's staff probably does not know much about British English. They have said they will accept British English though. You have to file a report and tell them in every case it is not accepted.

No, it has an irregular stem without accents.

palaash- Normally, in many cases, when there is an accent at the preterito perfecto simple, it's because you have the same word in an other tense. EX :yo olvido, present tense. él olvidó, past tense. yo termino, present, él terminó, past. The accent makes the difference.

Same as ser vs. estar. In this case, the use of "estar" is just the idiom.

We are indeed, but "estar" has a highly irregular conjugation. If it were a regular -ar verb the third person preterite would be "estó," but it's not.

It shouldn't be. "Really" is often used as an intensifier in English, equivalent to "very." You should report it.

Both English and Spanish treat "very good" / "muy buena" and "great" / "grande" as meaning the same thing in their nature but meaning importantly different things in degree.

I would say the dictionary hint in this case was not muy buena.

You can check out this page for the regular and irregular conjugation of verbs in the preterite tense, including that of estar: http://www.fluentu.com/spanish/blog/spanish-preterite-and-imperfect/

I have the same question.

The subject is “la cena”, not the person speaking. The person is saying the dinner was very good, not calling himself very good.

“Fue” is the 3rd person singular pretérito tense form for SER (and ir). Here the verb “to be” being used is ESTAR, pretérito form “estuvo”.

The dinner was great = La cena fue genial

I would consider "great" to be even stronger praise than "very good," but it's kind of splitting hairs at that point.

"Estaba" is imperfect tense, which describes an ongoing action in the past.

The dinner, i.e. "la cena" was a one-time event that is over, a completed action which you are describing, so you must use a perfect tense, i.e., the preterite tense.

If you regularly have dinners cooked by the same people at the same restaurant or family home repeatedly, perhaps you could use the imperfect & say "Las cenas estaban muy buenas", the dinners were very good, it's a repeated action in the past, and also leaves open the implication that you will continue to go enjoy those ongoing dinners, as opposed to commenting about one specific past dinner you sat down, ate & finished, it's done, which requires perfect tense.

"Excelente" is maybe the most straightforward one.