Question on the imperfect subjunctive

Question

I have been challenging myself with a book called Aita Tettauen - yeah, it's a wierd name, but it's Spanish and written by a Spanish author! That's why I was a bit confused when I met this sentence. Can anyone tell me why this is written as it is?

Si no inventa O'Donnell la guerra de África, sabe Dios lo que habría pasado.

According to the rules for imperfect subjunctive, shouldn't 'inventa' be 'inventara?' Or is it something to do with the 'if'?

???

Thanks.

Answer 1

There's no subjunctive The sentence tranlates: If O'Donnell doesn't make up (3rd person singular present indicative of inventar) the war in Africa, God knows what would have happened. I don't understand the logic of the writer here but it's just a simple declarative sentence in the present tense and an if clause with the verb in the conditional perfect indicative mood.

It better not to suspect grammatical errors on the part of the author. Although I don't understand why the if clause is not in the subjunctive.

I agree. "Inventa" and "sabe" are indicative because when we discuss writings and films, it´s usually in present tense. I doubt this has anything to do with grammar - 005faa61, Jan 25, 2012

Answer 2

I should have given a bit more context: everything before or after this sentence in the book is in the past tenses. If this sentence is merely in the present tense (in the dependent clause) then it doesn't fit in at all. ????