What does O sea mean?

Question

Mira,primero,todo el mundo tenía un horario fijo.nos levantábamos a las seis,desayunábamos a las 7.La instrucción era de las 8 a las 11.Almorzábamos a las doce...O sea,todos hacíamos las mismas cosas al mismo tiempo,como máquinas.

What does O sea mean here?

Answer 1

Qué vida más aburrida ¿verdad?

Fíjate que "o sea" quiere decir más o menos en inglés "in other words", o sea es una confirmación del hablante por sí mismo.

Thank you for that interesting info. But why the subjunctive? - kirk1, Feb 21, 2013

Gracias. - zhmelissa, Feb 21, 2013

Answer 2

Thank you for that interesting info. But why the subjunctive?

Good question Kirk.

Two things occur to me here.

1) It's not really being said, so it's irreal and requires the subjunctive.

Or more likely,

2) The subjunctive can be used to tell someone something they already know. If they already know something, or something is already understood, then you're not declaring it with the same strength, and thus subjunctive is adequate for the job. A bit like in English when we say to someone "Well, as you already know...blahblahblah"

Though I haven't seen it before, Julian's example of "O sea" above seems to be by definition introducing something the listener already knows, so it takes the subjunctive.

This is what, in my goofy-head, I call the "declaration-lite" case of the subjunctive.

O sea, usemos el subjuntivo cuando hablamos de hechos lo que ya sabemos.

(and I just realized I have no idea when or if the clause goes back into indicative, as I tried to do above after the cuando clause. -- Crap, now I'm lost)

I like your explanation on point 2). - 005faa61, Feb 21, 2013