alegría al saber = joy to knowledge ?

Question

I encounter a sentence in my textbook: Imagínate nuestra alegría al saber que volverá mañana.

Does it mean: You imagined that our joy to knowledge will come back tomorrow. (Today we have no more interest to learn, you thought we will get back the interest to learn tomorrow.) -- is it right?

imagínate, spelling error? should be imagínaste? why past tense here? It seems that it should be in present tense, because the subordinate clause uses simple future tense.

Answer 1

Imagínate (command form of imagine, you) nuestra alegría al saber que volverá (not talking to you since it's not tu, but something else, read the context) mañana.

Imagine our joy knowing that he/she/it will come back tomorrow.

Can you supply some context?

It is just a sample sentence, no more context, pity. - SlowFoxtrot, DIC 20, 2009

Just a side note: Imaginarse (reflexive form) is really the same thing, when I see/hear it intuitively I think "suppose, think about it" - Danieljoseph, DIC 20, 2009

Yup, I agree with Daniel...at least that is exactly how I interpretted it. (come back/return) - aloshek, DIC 20, 2009

Many thanks, I understand it now. There is a "te" here. - SlowFoxtrot, DIC 20, 2009

No prob, just remember AL before a verb roughly means upon, then mentally turn the verb into an -ing. That's kinda what I did when I learned it, well still do. - Danieljoseph, DIC 20, 2009

Couldn't it mean "Imagine our joy to know that tomorrow will come? - jeezzle, DIC 20, 2009

The verb is volver, to return, which implies that something left and is coming back, perhaps you read venir? - Danieljoseph, DIC 20, 2009

Answer 2

al + infinitive means "on/upon doing (whatever)".

So, "al saber" means "upon finding out", i.e., when we found out.

The whole sentence is roughly "Imagine our joy when we found out he would return tomorrow."

excellent - 00494d19, DIC 21, 2009

Answer 3

Can you imagine our joy to know that you would return tomorrow. ?

Answer 4

? think of our joy to know you will return tomorrow?