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Old December 21, 2020, 10:14 AM
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Location: USA
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Hi David, we'll need more context than what you've provided in order to fully answer your question, but I can explain a few things about the verb that was used in the fragment you posted.

The verb fuera is a singular, third-person conjugation rendered in the imperfect preterit tense of the subjunctive mood. It agrees in number and person with the subject cepa. This form of the verb is used to cast some doubt (or indicate strong emotion) about the detection of a new strain of the coronavirus.

In the absence of doubt (or strong emotion), the indicative mood would be in order, and era could be used instead of fuera (keeping the same tense and subject-verb agreement).

I hope that clears up some of your confusion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David G View Post
Leo las noticias en la BBC Mundo donde escribieron "una nueva cepa de coronavirus fuera detectada en el país". ¿Por qué escribieron "fuera detectada" y no "eran detectada"?
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