He asked that he brought him that.
This was on the test given to me to test my level and I used "trajera" for brought.
But brought seems so wrong to me there like it should be "He asked that he bring him that." with traiga not trajara.
What do you think?
Le pidió que le traiga eso.
Le pidió que le trajara eso.
Which do you think is better for "He asked that he brought him that"
Because on review I would say "Le pidió que le traiga eso" and just footnote it that "bring" is better there.
Gracias.
6 Answers
The English use of "brought" probably resulted from the sentence having started off in Spanish and been translated to English in order to solicit "Le pidió que le trajera eso." --- He asked (in the past) that he/she/you bring him (the bringing also being in the past) that.
In Spanish "trajera" is correct and "traiga" is odd.
An afterthought. Consider the (subtly different) English sentences: 1) "He asked that next year I bring it to him." and 2) "He asked that the next year I bring it to him." In the first sentence "next year" is in the future (with respect to the present) while in the second it was in the future (with respect to the request) but is now in the past. I think "traiga" is possible/better for the first but I firmly believe that the second must be "trajera".
Perhaps, Lazarus or Heidita will weigh in on this.
He asked that he brought him that.
I don't know who "invented" this sentence but it it is "gobbledy-gook!
When would it ever be said?
I think you must re-phrase it into "proper" English and then translate it.
He asked him to bring (him) that. (him) because it is superfluous.
In English it doesn't make sense. I see a few possibilities. Here's two:
- He asked if he brought him that.
- He asked for him to bring him that.
From the comments here, I suspect that the person who framed the question wanted a past-tense statement that would include a past-tense subjunctive. As noted, the simplest form would be like "Joe asked that Jack bring it to him." The English version should be "He asked that he have brought it to him." Use of some other verb (which does not translate as "bring/brought" but maybe as "give/gave, present/presented, etc.) would have helped. The real clumsiness comes from the second use of "he" which implies "Joe asked that Joe have brought it to Joe." 
Le pidió que le traiga eso. (present subjunctive)
Le pidió que le trajara eso. (imperfect subjunctive)
Because it's a demand, we can agree that the dependent clause needs to be in subjunctive mood.
Spanish grammar uses consistent tense in this case. Since pidió is preterite, the second verb must be imperfect subjunctive. I don't see any further complication to discuss on this point. Did I miss anything?
I'm not sure this can be perfectly understood in English:
He asked that he bring him that.
English subjunctive is a bit weak and ambiguous. We understand "bring" is in the past, but don't reserve a conjugated form to make it explicit, as done in Spanish.
Spanish grammar uses consistent tense in this case. Since pidió is preterite, the second verb must be imperfect subjunctive. I don't see any further complication to discuss on this point. Did I miss anything?
So you are saying in a two clause sentence, if the first clause is in the preterite tense then the second clause MUST be in the imperfect (past) subjunctive? and never in the present subjuncitve?
Can you provide some more information on that, are you saying that because the first clause refers to the past, the second surely must as well?
Gracias.
