Subjunctive in a sentence with two topics.

Question

Hey guys,

I've got a question regarding the use of the subjunctive in a sentence with more than one topic.

For example let's look at this sentence:

Espero que no esté trabajado en la ciudad cuando la tormenta pasó.

I'm sure to use the subjunctive for esté trabajado because that's what we wish for. But I'm not really sure whether I have to use it for pasar as well. My gut feeling says no because you can split this sentence as well into two separate ones, where pasar would definitely be used in the indicative form. But I'd like to hear your opinion as well regarding this topic.

Thx in advance, Tom

But the sentence should say "Espero que no estuviera trabajando en la ciudad cuando la tormenta pasó". Esté is for preset, but in this case the future, estuviera is when something already happened. - -cae-, Mar 20, 2012

Answer 1

But I thought that although the first clause expresses desire, the second clause shouldn´t use subjunctive because the subject doesn´t change (it is "yo" in both clauses)...

Answer 2

This is in the past time frame. The storm had really happened. So I think the 2nd clause must be in the preterit ( the subjunctive mood does not have the simple past tense). As your hope is expressed in the past time frame, I think it should be '¡Ojalá no estuvieras ( trabajando ) en la ciudad cuando pasó la tormenta!' But I am not absolutely sure either. This is a good question. Thanks for posting it.