subjunctive hang-up

Question

In the following sentence, "Charlie then became insulted that I didn't trust him to know his limits." Is the verb "trust"' going to be subjunctive preterite, yo no le confiara or imperfect, yo no le confiaba I'm questioning it because the verb comes after que Thanks all.

Answer 1

Your names for verb tenses are confusing me. I understand the subjunctive preterite, but this tense is also called the imperfect subjunctive or past subjunctive. so contrasting it with the imperfect is a bit confusing.
Your choices are the imperfect tense, subjunctive mood (confiara) or the imperfect tense, indicative mood (confiaba).

The subjunctive mood is not used merely because there is a subordinate clause in the sentence (because there is a que).

Both the subjunctive and indicative verbs occur in subordinate clauses.

The reason that I would use the subjunctive in your example is because

• the independent clause verb is a verb of emotion,
• there is a subordinate clause,
• there is a subject change,
• (and most importantly) the main clause is expressing an emotional reaction to the dependent clause rather that declaring the subordinate clause.

The reason that I would use the past (imperfect or preterite) subjunctive (confiara) is because the main clause verb is in the past tense. (became)

Answer 2

By the way, it is "confiara en que..."