How do I say "Do you wish that you had gone to university?"

Question

How do I say "Do you wish that you had gone to university?" Is this correct "desea que usted hubiera ido a la universidad"?

Also, I just read the following in a novel " me temo que alguien ha robado algo en la Royal Academy". However would the use of subjunctive be more appropriate here, ie "me temo que alguien haya robado algo en la Royal Academy".

Thanks for any help!

Andrew

• "Me temo que alguin ha robado.." is correct :) ... que hay robado is not possible there - Benz Mar 24, 2010

Answer 1

"Do you wish that you had gone to university?"

¿Deseas que hubiera asistido a la universidad?

And for the subjunctive question, I think they used the indicative because he/she feared something thought to be a fact or absolutly true.

• ¿deseo que...? does not mean Do you wish...? - qfreed Mar 24, 2010
• ah!....Good catch. Guess my mind was stuck in 1st person. Thanks ;) - mr-solis Mar 24, 2010

Answer 2

¿Hubieras deseado ir a la Universidad?

May be the second is better, but have the same meaning

¿Desearías haber podido ir a la Universidad?

• Hi Benz I am a little confused "Do you wish that you had gone to university?" the "had gone" seems to have disappeared. - ian-hill Mar 24, 2010
• Muchas gracias Benz! - silverlake Mar 24, 2010
• yeah...'haber' should apply to "attend" not "wish"....right? "had attended" vs "had wished" - mr-solis Mar 24, 2010

Answer 3

For the first one I would opt for asistir rather than "had gone", but it sounds ok. I'm curious as to if there isn't a way to say this using the infinitive as there seems to be no subject change between the main clause verb and the dependent clause verb which is one of the requisites for subjunctive use. (see Benz's great reply)

I think that the reason the 2nd sentence, (despite the temer trigger), uses the indicative rather than the subjunctive is because the person is stating a fact rather than express his reaction to one. In other words, he isn't actually stressing the "I fear something", but using it more as "regretfully this event occurred...informing us about the event".

Lazarus (I can't express what a blow it was when he quit visiting here) gave a great explanation of this in a previous thread if you wish to find it. It dealt with "prior knowledge" and went over my head at the time. If you have no prior knowledge of the event and I am informing you about it, then despite the verb of emotion, the overall sentence is a declaration and the indicative mood is used. If I know that you have prior knowledge of the event (I am not informing you of anything that you don't already know) then the verb of emotion, doubt, etc. is expressing my reaction to the event, not declaring anything, and the subjunctive mood is used.

• Yes, I can see that you are absolutely right about my second question. I guess the use of the subjunctive is often subjective. Thanks so much. - silverlake Mar 24, 2010