Homework check request 3 - - indicativo o subjuntivo
Hi gang,
I have about 20 subjunctive vs indicative practice questions to do, with a few for some reason having no answer key so we can check ourselves. I´ll bold the verbs that we had to conjugate. They´re getting a tiny bit tougher now, as we have to figure out time, not just mood (though it´s usually obvious)
If anyone had a moment to glance the below over, I´d be much obliged.
(note, mistakes other than in bold are just my own bad typing)
Muchas gracias.
15 Ellos prefieren que todos lo hagan con mucho cuidado.
16 Es preciso que los invitados lleguen a las nueve.
17 Dudábamos que el velorio empiece esta tarde.
18 Luz María negó que ellos hayan visto la película.
19 No es dudoso que sus niños temen la muerte.
20 El ladrón negó que él robó muchas cosas.
21 Fue triste que mi vecino perdiera todo su dinero en la lotería.
3 Answers
17 empezara 18 hubieran visto 19 le temieran a la muerte 20 que él había robado
Es sólo mi humilde opinión. Espero que te ayuden. Saludos!
Thanks Kiwi.
17 was in fact bugging me. According to our guidelines, we'd normally invoke the present subjunctive for now, near future, or future, which is why I didn't choose empezara even though it "sounded" good too (to my admittedly fledgling ear). Between not being past, and not really a hypothetical, my limited rules didn't point me towards empezara. I'm still not dead sure. Darn, this is hard.
18 I really struggle with too. The past preterite "negó" makes me think past, and thus hubieran, but the present perfect, despite the name, is really referring to the past, so though I´m doing very well in the class, these hayan vs hubieran perfect subjunctives really kill me, especially when they are context limited, such as single-sentence fill-in-the-blank exercises.
If you or anyone else has any further pointers, I´m all ears. We did tons of exercises up until this week where all the exercises shared either a single mood, or single tense, or were all in perfect, or some such, but now I´m realizing when they´re all thrown together, there are some things I can´t quite differentiate. I´m probably missing something and just tripping myself up, but the more I think about when to use hayan-plus-participle vs hubieran-plus-participle (when it´s not a hypothetical which is more obvious) the more confused I get.
HeLP!
Lastly, on number 20, Yes, I think your answer is possible. Would mine necessarily be wrong? Our professor, who is normally very rules based, has recommended that until we develop more of an ear, and decide whether we´re leaning more towards latin-american vs continental Spanish, that we ought use the perfect in the second clause, if the first clause used it, and if not, then not. Does this sound reasonable to you?
Again, thanks to you and anyone else who chimes in, for the help.
God I wish there were one more day before the test. I´ve been getting 98s or better, but that crap seems about to come to a screeching halt.
Mis sugerencias serían ...
No 17: Dudábamos que el velorio empezara esta tarde.
si no, ¿no diría? - We doubted that the wake starts this afternoon.
18: LM negó que ellos hubieran visto la pelí.
y por 20. que él había robado ... sería posible también ¿no?
