Al llegar with what tense

Question

Hey guys.

Should I use the future or present tense when including the phrase "al llegar" into a sentence. For example:

Al llegar, hablamos/hablaremos sobre el tema.

This is just an example. I am asking a general sense. I feel like either would work though...

Thanks!

Answer 1

What about the past tenses, these also work.

Al llegar al seminario, habló sobre el problema de la droga.

Yeah, well also that... but the question I am trying to answer doesn't have hoy, manana, or ayer. It's written exactly as I wrote it so it seems really vague to me. - Gringinho, Oct 6, 2011

The context of the tense should dictate past, present or future. I have removed "ayer" from above but the phrase still indicates the past tense. - Eddy, Oct 7, 2011

Answer 2

You can use almost any tense with this construction, no?

Al llegar, hablamos sobre el tema (two actions in the past).

Al llegar, hablamos sobre el tema (two actions in the past, but simultaneous).

Al llegar, hablaremos sobre el tema (an action that will take part in the future).

Answer 3

You can use almost any tense with this construction, no?

Upon entering, I:

said hello

was saying hello

say hello

will say hello

would have said hello

might say hello

Etc...

So one of the questions is "al llegar, Paula ____ la casa limpia" and I have to pick encontrara, encuentre, or encontraba. Doesn't that depend on what time frame they give me...? I would think any could work otherwise - Gringinho, Oct 6, 2011