Fuera o Era Detectada

[David G]

Hola, me llamo David y soy inglés.

Hablo solo un poco de español.

Leo las noticias en la BBC Mundo y escriben "una nueva cepa de coronavirus fuera detectada en el país". Por que escriben "fuera detectada" y no "eran detectada"?

Gracias.
David

[Rusty]

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.

Originally Posted by David G

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"?

[poli]

... also listen to it again at a slower playback speed. It it possible the said fue and you heard fuera

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

We will need the full sentence to answer your specific question.


In the meantime, "fuera" is a subjunctive; you will find it in specific contexts. For example:
- El confinamiento se decretó después de que una nueva cepa del coronavirus fuera detectada en el país.
The lockdown was placed after a new coronavirus strain was detected in the country.
In this case, "después de que" is often used with the subjunctive, but as Poli said, "fue" might be a better choice of words, because they're talking about facts that already happened.


It shouldn't be "era", unless there is another action happening at the same time. For example:
- Una nueva cepa del coronavirus era detectada al mismo tiempo que se imponía el confinamiento.
A new strain of coronavirus was being detected at the same time that the lockdown was placed.

[David G]

Gracias a todos por la información. Es muy útil para mí. BBC ha cambiado la sentencia!