Mira esta, ¿crees que esta correcta?

Question

Maria y yo estabamos hablando y creíamos que la hora de que yo saliera se esta acercando muy rápido. ¿Puedes dejarme salir?

My question is about saliera which I think works there, better than salga. Gracias.

FYI I said this at work and was understood so I know it makes sense at least.

Answer 1

I agree with saliera, w/ one correction: "..que la hora de que yo saliera se estaba acercando muy rápido."

Answer 2

Even though estaba has a concordance with the rest of the sentence and I know concordance is really what we are after, it still sounds odd to me with estaba at that point.

Maria and I were talking and we were thinking that the time for me to leave is rapidly approaching.

Does everyone agree with estaba, because with that it would say

Maria and I were talking and we were thinking that the time for me to leave was rapidly approaching.

To me something that was rapidly approaching has already gone, whereas something that is rapidly approaching is still coming. Is it ALL about concordance where even that estaba must be there? It seems off to me with estaba for some reason there.

Gracias.

Speech is supposed to communicate ideas and facts. Concordance, grammar rules, etc are all secondary. - CalvoViejo, Aug 12, 2011

I agree 100 percent but I have lately noticed some odd rules about concordance which are somewhat arbitrary, in fact Maria and I talked a bit about that too (slow night, great for learning) I am not a big fan of concordance, but sea lo que sea,, ;) - jeezzle, Aug 12, 2011

Answer 3

I'm not quite sure just what you're trying to say.

"María and I were talking and we thought that the hour of my departure was quickly approaching. Can you let me leave?"

or did you mean the hour of your departure is quickly approaching?

The request following your statement makes me think that you haven't departed yet, but will soon, so the time is approaching.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I would use "salgo".

La hora en que yo salgo se está acercando ...

Ha, I'm sticking to my guns with Saliera but yes, I mean IS and that I haven't left yet, I think my way works, although I think salgo might work too, but think se esta acercando totally works better than se estaba. And I wrote you back 3 weeks ago. ;) - jeezzle, Aug 12, 2011