Well, in Spanish the verbal tenses are pretty difficult, because are a lot, for instance is, and are means in spanish: Ser/estar in singular and plural, so that past verbal tenses are: IS=Ser/Estar Yo era/estaba Tu eras/estabas El (ella) era/estaba Nosotros eramos/estabamos Vosotros erais/estabais Ellos eran/estaban The problem is that this is not the only way to express the past in spanish, there are a quite more Yo fui/estube Tu fuiste(s)/estubiste(s) El(ella) fue/estubo Nosotros fuimos/estubimos Vosotros fuisteis/estubisteis Nosotros fuimos/éstubimos There are more, but the use of it are reduced and even a big part of spanish native speakers unknow them, like: Yo hube sido/ hube estado Tu hubiste sido/hubiste estado El hubo sido/hubo estado Nosotros hubimos sido/hubimos estado Vosotros hubisteis sido/hubisteis estado Nosotros hubimos sido/hubimos estado This tenses are more commonly used by writers or in polite speaches, but as i said, a big part of the natives, knows about them existence, but they don't use it and they don't even know to conjugate them right. And only this, is in the indicative mode, in subjunctive, there are more past tenses whose denote wish or doubt, i leave here one more Yo hubiera (o hubiese) sido/ hubiera (o hubiese ) estado Tu hubieras ( o hubieses) sido/ hubieras (o hubieses) estado El hubiera (o hubiese) sido/ Hubiera (o hubiese) estado Nosotros hubieramos (o hubiesemos) sido/ hubieramos (o hubiesemos) estado Vosotros hubierais (o hubieseis) sido/ hubierais (o hubieseis ) estado Ellos hubieran (o hubiesen) sido/ hubieran (o hubiesen) estado But, don't get dissapointed! and keep practising!

Hi Alaine! I just want to add something to what Appa said. First, you don't say "estube" It's with "v": Yo fui/estuve, Tú fuiste/estuviste, etc.. Also, it's wrong if you put that "s"after fuiste or estuviste. The "yo habría sido" tense is the perfect conditional, it's not a past tense. It's like "I would have been". Instead of learning the "pretérito anterior" (yo hube sido/estado) which is never used in Spanish, you should learn: Pretérito pluscuamperfecto Yo había sido/esado; Tú habías sido/estado; Él había sido/estado As you can see, all you need to know is how to conjugate the auxiliary verb "haber", as this is a compound verb in pretérito imperfecto. It's used basically the same way as "I had been". Also, if you're starting to learn the language, maybe the structure of the "pretérito perfecto de indicativo" will be easier for you, because it usually has the same uses as the "pretérito de indicativo" (yo fui/estuve; tú fuiste/estuviste), but once again all you have to do is conjugate the auxiliary verb, and then remember the participle of the main verb: Yo he sido/estado; Tú has sido/estado; Él ha sido/estado. Good luck :)

Past is= (era/estaba) are=(eras/estabas) (singular) are=(eran/estaban) (plural)