text book exercise example - second or third person ?

Question

The following is an example given in a Spanish grammar exercise book.

(Task) ¿Qué diría? Escriba frases con quién y el pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo del verbo adecuado:

(The example answer is in italics)

1. Le gustaría bailar como un amigo suyo, pero lo ve difícil. ¡Quién bailara como tú!

The answer as given in the book is ¡Quién bailara como tú!

My question is not about the use of the subjunctive, but about the use of the personal pronoun 'tú': Why is the answer the book wants in the 'tú' form when the first statement is either in the 'usted' form or in the third person 'él' form (I don't know which, perhaps this may be the key) ?

Answer 1

It's because the form of the verb "bailara" (pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo) refers to quien, not tú. Maybe the example below will help:

¿Quién ha visto a mi amigo Pedro? - Who has seen my friend Peter?

The form of the verb (third person singular) refers to the subject of the sentence, which is quién/who.

Oh, and by the way - sometimes there are mistakes in the answer keys (I found a few in my grammar book).

Now I´m not sure if this is exactly what you were asking about... - Issabela, Feb 6, 2010

The exercise topic was about using the preterito imperfecto subjunctive with ¡quién! to express something nearly impossible, and not using ¿quién? as a question. Another example would be ¡Quién viviera cien años! - peterpierre2, Feb 6, 2010

or ¡Quién conociera el futuro! (esperanza sobre algo imposible) - peterpierre2, Feb 6, 2010

Answer 2

Very good catch, Peter, most certainly getting my vote!

It should be : ¡Quién bailara como él!

I always believe in your answers - Fidalgo, Feb 6, 2010

Thanks Heidita! - peterpierre2, Feb 6, 2010