"First I would wake up and crawl out of the tent."

Question

I was writing an essay and got a little confused about the conditional. I'm writing about who I would switch places with, if I could choose anyone. This sentence is part of my description of what I would imagine a day in the life of this other person to be like.

In English, I would say, "First I would wake up and crawl out of the tent."

In Spanish, though, would I use conditional for both verbs? Or just the first verb, like in English? "Primero, me levantaría y me arrastraría de la carpa." or "Primero, me levantaría y arrastrarme de la carpa."?

Thanks for you help!

Answer 1

I like the two conditionals better as there is no grammatic dependency between them even if the crawling out is (hopefully) time dependent on the upwaking.

Answer 2

HI lee, welcome to the forum

WE use the form: soler here

soler + infinitive

Solíamos levantarnos y salir de la tienda a gatas.

The conditional use in English is technically not a condition but a form which indicates what we usually did every morning. You use the conditional form of the verb, we use soler + infinitive

You can use the imperfect:

nos levantabamos y salíamos...

Answer 3

soler + infinitive

That was my initial reaction, too. However, on closer reading, I noticed that topic is what one would do if one exchanged places with someone else. So the whole essay is embedded in a "If I were him/her I would ..." context.

Answer 4

Follow through on Samdie:

"soler"= "to be accustomed to" or maybe "in the habit of" so is not relevant to the conditional "if I were her I would" although it would be fine if the meaning were to be "I would" = "i used to" or "I was accustomed to"

Answer 5

Lo correcto sería decir "primero me levantaría y saldría a gatas de la tienda" o "primero me levantaría y me arrastraría fuera de la tienda"

"Primero, me levantaría y me arrastraría de la carpa." this part is missing the word fuera

"Primero, me levantaría y arrastrarme de la carpa." this is incorrect levantaria and arrastrarme are in a different time frame.

Answer 6

If you are talking about a hypothetical situation, like changing places with a person, you are dealing with a hypothetical "si" (if) clause. This has two parts that are used as a set verb combination when talking about a situation where the condition stated in the "if" portion of the clause is not likely to be realized:

Pt. 1: Pt. 2:
Si + imperfect subjunctive, conditional

Ej. "Si fuera rica, compararía una casa bonita." "If I were rich, I would buy a pretty house". (I know I am not rich and there is little probability of my becoming rich)

You were given the first hypothetical "If' part in the scenario of changing places with anyone:

Si fuera otra persona (If I were another person).

When you elaborate on what you WOULD do if you were that other person, you will use the conditional throughout:

Si fuera rica, compraría una casa, viajaría por todo el mundo, comería en restaurantes elegantes, etc.