Tensos de verbos

Question

"Solo la separacion prolongada podia explicar su enamoramiento por Juliana: si durmiese abrazado a su mujer eso jamas hubiese sucedio."

No entiendo "durmiese" y "hubiese". Esta oracion es de Zorro por Isabel Allende. Puede ayudarme'

Answer 1

The correct term is "tiempos verbales". "Tensos" is only used for physical forces (e.g. muscular tension).

"Durmiese" is the imperfect subjunctive of "dormir" (sleep) and when this tense follows "si", it is used for hypothetical conditions, i.e. highly improbable or just impossible. "Hubiese" is the same tense, but here it is the same as "it would have...", providing the outcome for the hypothetical condition.

Answer 2

Thanks. I guessed that, but why does my verb book give durmiera and hubiera'

Answer 3

You can find several discussions on the -r formation of the subjunctive versus the -s formation, if you use the "Search Forum" box. Here's one such discussion:

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A474984]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A474984[/url]

Chris said:

Thanks. I guessed that, but why does my verb book give durmiera and hubiera?

>

Answer 4

Chris said:

Thanks. I guessed that, but why does my verb book give durmiera and hubiera?

The imperfect subjunctive has two endings: -era and -ese, and for "proper" subjunctive uses they are perfectly interchangeable:

fuera / fuese
comiera / comiese
viera / viese
tuviera / tuviese