Así que terminara el programa, todo el mundo salió.

Question

Hey guys...

I wonder if you can help. Eventually planning to do the proficiency exam (¡Que Dios me ayude!)... so I've got some grammar questions for the specialists amongst you:

Así que terminara el programa, todo el mundo salió, or

Así que terminó el programa, todo el mundo salió

(I'm inclined to think it is the first.)

¿Nunca crees que te equivoques?, or

¿Nunca crees que te equivocas?

(I'm inclined to think it is the first again, hopefully I'm not suffering from subjunctivitus!)

Thanks guys.

Answer 1

II. Conjunctions of time take the indicative when the action in the subordinate clause is either habitual or in the past. The subjunctive is used when the main clause is a command or in the (potential) future:

así que as soon as

Interesting question, rtal

this is the rule, so as you are talking about a past event, it takes indicative, sounds slightly weird though, I would have used the subjunctive ...

Asi que terminara el ......

¿Nunca crees que te equivocas?

this is the correct phrase. Creer: you are declaring something, so that takes indicative.

Thanks. I always thought, however, that the phrase 'antes de que', even in the past, is followed by the subjunctive. 'hicieron los deberes antes de que se fueran'. This would be a conjunction of time as well though wouldn't it? - r1alford, OCT 30, 2009

Answer 2

Así que terminara el programa, todo el mundo salió, or Así que terminó el programa, todo el mundo salió (I'm inclined to think it is the first.)

I think you used the "machine translator" which translates "as the program finished" as "así que terminara el programa". The correct translation is

"Al terminar el programa, todo el mundo salió"

¿Nunca crees que te equivoques?, or ¿Nunca crees que te equivocas?

(I'm inclined to think it is the first again, hopefully I'm not suffering from subjunctivitus!)

The second one is OK. "equivoques" is conditional