If I were to...

Question

No sé exactamente como traducir esta expresión. La buscaba en wordreference.com, y encontré esto:

If were to read his essay, .... = En caso de que yo lea su ensayo,

Y

"si yo fuera a decir"

Pero dijeron que "si yo fuera a..." es una traducción literal, asi que no sé si la gente usa esa expresión.

Cuando le pregunté a mi marido y me dijo que puedo usar frases como --

pretendemos que...

digamos que...

imagínate que...

(pero estas son como "let's pretend..." o "let's say...")

¿Cuál de estas frases usarían?

Gracias!

---

Please, correct my Spanish

Answer 1

Hi, Nikki!

"Si fuera a leer su ensayo" works perfectly, and it's the more common way to express that. "Si fuera a... " is widely used in Spanish

"En caso de que lea/leyera su ensayo" is also correct, meaning: In case I read/read his essay.

"pretendamos que" This one sounds weird to me (and it needs subjunctive)

"digamos que" Let's say that

"imagínate que" Imagine that

People also say sentences like:

"Pongamos por caso que leo" su ensayo (which personally I hate)

All these sentences have in common that they speak about an hypothesis: something that didn't happen, and it hasn't why to happen. They express the very same idea: Let's imagine that...

Ahh... perhaps it sounds weird to you because my hubby is from Mexico... ? =) Thanks! - NikkiLR, Nov 4, 2011

Oh, and I am glad that people say "si fuera a..." -- I love how that one sounds! I am wondering, when one says that, does it sound formal? - NikkiLR, Nov 4, 2011

It sounds normal as "yes, it is" - cogumela, Nov 4, 2011

Answer 2

They all sound reasonable to me.

I'm not sure that it would not be...si fuera a decir yo... putting the yo before the verb emphasizes the I (yo) rather that the thing that (if I were to say) is referring to.

None with suponer? (Supongamos que...)

Ahh, another one to add to my list. =) - NikkiLR, Nov 4, 2011