Mixing verb tenses in the past

Question

This is my first posting! I often get mixed up with the various past verb tenses in Spanish.I often think of things I would like to email to friends I met when vacationing.

Can anyone help me with the following sentence:

"I wished we had more time so that we could have known each other better".

Would I say " Esperaba que tuviéramos mas tiempo para que nos sabríamos mas"

Also any suggestions of further reading would be appreciated.

I wish we had had more time ....etc - ian-hill, Aug 6, 2011

Nice catch Ian! - foxluv, Aug 6, 2011

while "had had" may be correct it is almost never used in english- written or spoken - garry1970, Aug 6, 2011

native english would probably say "i wish we'd had" as "had had" sounds strange so normally we ignore the contracted "we'd" and just say "we" but grammatically "had had" is correct and my original question was not, ebven though it would sound correct - garry1970, Aug 6, 2011

Answer 1

"Esperaba que tuviéramos mas tiempo..."

That part is right, but you have to say "hubiéramos tenido" if the whole thing was seen as over at that time in the past. "Más" has a tilde.

... para que nos sabríamos mas"

This one needs fixing. In English you have used a perfect tense "could have known", and in Spanish it is the same. Also, you cannot declare that you have known each other well, so forget about indicative:

... para habernos conocido mejor

Also (but unnecessarily long):

... para que nos hubiéramos conocido mejor

Answer 2

Hi Garry, and welcome. You've come to the right place.

I would suggest that "wish" could be either in the past or, if you still wish that, the present. Leaving it in the past, though, I would have said (and this is quite a complicated sentence so there is LOTS of room for me to be wrong):

Deseaba que nos hubiéramos pasado mas tiempo juntos para que nos pudiéramos haber conocido mejor.

Corrections of my suggestion always appreciated.

Wish - as you say is present but usually refers to something that happened in the past. "Hope" is used for the future. - ian-hill, Aug 6, 2011

Answer 3

Ok a quick follow up to my posted question if I may:

If I was talking to the person saying " I wish we had more time so we could get to know each other more:

Would I say " deseo que hayamos más tiempo para habernos conocido mejor"

I really appreciated the feedback!

Answer 4

Hi Garry,

There will be better answers than mine, but by selecting mine as best others may not reply. Really, mine probably won't be deserving of this, but even if it is I suggest you unselect my answer as best and wait for a little more input.

Saludos!

J

Ok noi problem! - garry1970, Aug 6, 2011