fueran

Fueran is the third-person plural form of the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish, and it can correspond to either the verbs ser or ir in that tense. In this form, the same imperfect subjunctive endings apply to both verbs, so fueran can be understood as “they were” or “they went” depending on context. The imperfect subjunctive is used in dependent clauses that describe hypothetical, uncertain, past-oriented, or counterfactual situations, often after expressions of doubt, emotion, wish, or possibility.

The tenor of fueran is part of the -ra series of endings for the imperfect subjunctive. The full set of forms for ser and ir in the imperfect subjunctive -ra variant is: yo fuera, tú fueras, él fuera, nosotros fuéramos, vosotros fuerais, ellos fueran. There is also a -se variant of the imperfect subjunctive (e.g., yo fuese, tú fueses, él fuese, nosotros fuésemos, vosotros fueseis, ellos fuesen), which remains correct and is used in more literary or formal registers in some dialects.

Usage examples include: Si ellos fueran aquí, podríamos empezar. (If they were here, we could start.) No creí que ellos fueran tan puntuales. (I didn’t think they would be so punctual.) Ojalá que ellos fueran honestos. (I wish they were honest.) In contemporary Spanish, fueran is common in casual and formal writing, while the fuese/ fuesen forms may appear in more literary or traditional contexts.