Cuando or Si Grammatical confusion
I recently posted a sentence on a thread "Cuando me toca la lotería compro un yate"
I expected corrections which I welcome and it was corrected to "toque" and "compraré". Going by what I had learned previously I too would have gone for subjunctive and future. However in a class I have recently joined we were going over
Cunado + presente + presente and
Si + presente + presente and the examples given as:
Cuando lleuve vamos al cine and
Si llueve vamos al cine
Could someone kindly explain where I have gone wrong with my original sentence as I think I have followed the above rule.
Thanks.
2 Answers
"Cuando me toca la loteria compro un yate" -> Aqui estas diciendo que SIEMPRE que te toca la loteria compras un yate.
"Cuando me toque la loteria comprare un yate" -> Aqui dices que el dia en un futuro que te toque la loteria compraras un yate.
"Si me toca la loteria comprare un yate" -> Es igual que la frase anterior.
"Cuando llueve vamos al cine" -> En este caso quiere decir que SIEMPRE que llueve vas al cine.
"Si llueve vamos al cine" -> Aqui es practicamente igual, pero dices que si llueve a lo largo del dia, semana, mes... ireis al cine (Pero no es algo que hagas siempre como con "Cuando")
Hi, Caza. It was me who corrected your sentence to use the subjunctive.
Cuando + future (When I win...I will buy = future) needs the subjunctive.
Cuando + present (or something habitual that you do) = indicative.
Some examples:
If it rains (Whenever it rains) we go to the movies = Cuando/Si llueve vamos al cine.
You do this every time it rains
When I win the lottery = Cuando gane la lotería.
Call me when you return = Llámame cuando regreges
