Subjunctive In Sentences With 2 Tenses

Question

What I would like to say is "I hope that you had a good week" I can think of 2 possibilities Espero que pasaras una semana bien Espero que hayas pasado una semana bien

It's difficult for me to know what to say when th first verb is in the present but the second is a past action. please help!

Answer 1

I've seen both.

Espero que hayas pasado una buena semana.

Espero que pasaras una buena semana.

When saying 'pasaras', is the accented syllable the pentultimate, "sar"? Pa SA ras? - katydew, Nov 2, 2012

Answer 2

They are both fine and are just the difference between:

I hope you 'have' had a good weekend. (hayas)

and

I hope you 'had' a good weekend. (pasaras)

Well, that made it clear for me. - katydew, Nov 2, 2012

If you say "I hope you have had a good week" in English, it sounds like something else is coming. For example " I hope you have had a good week, because from now on you're on nights" - PeterRS, Nov 2, 2012

Answer 3

To answer such a statement, you will use the simple past:

-Espero que hayas pasado una buena semana.

-Sí, pasé una... or No, no pasé...

The subjunctive is used becasue the speaker doesn't whether you did or not have a goed week, and the answer's in pretérito because you're talking about a past event without referring to a succession of actions, for which you'd use pretérito imperfecto.

Nice addition for the extra information. There are a couple of typos in the English: ...doesn't know whether you did or did not have a good week.... - katydew, Nov 2, 2012