Why is subjunctive form used here?

Question

Why is the subjunctive form of "pidieran" used here if it really happened?

"Se enojó y comenzó a gritarle a los policías después de que le pidieran una identificación."

Answer 1

It is used in the subjunctive because presumably that was what triggered the person to be angry.

If it were totally true then it could be written as : "...después de que se le pidió su....."

: ) - jphip, May 14, 2014

Answer 2

It's the ' después de'. This is usually followed by the subjunctive ( can often be avoided by using the infinitive)

Thank you! Can you please rewrite the sentence using the infinite? - mirchu23, May 14, 2014

: ) - jphip, May 14, 2014

después de pedirle una identificación. - annierats, May 15, 2014

Answer 3

Click below to answer your specific question:

Haga Click Aquí

In your example above the past subjunctive is used. - jphip, May 14, 2014

Thank you, but in this sentence the action has happened already since it's in past tense. - mirchu23, May 14, 2014

Right hence using the past subjunctive. I had to give you the basic idea first in the link. You need to look-up the past subjunctive and study that. - jphip, May 14, 2014

What you wrote above is 100 percent correct btw... It sounds like it is directly out of a newspaper written in proper Spanish. Good Job! - jphip, May 14, 2014

Remember that "antes de" and "después de" ONLY take the infinitive when the subject of the main clause and the subordinate clause is the same. In your example this does not apply. - jphip, May 14, 2014

Also, Antes de y después de are weird exceptions to the rule. - jphip, May 14, 2014

You have to throw logic out here. Have a good one and good lucks in your studies. : ) - jphip, May 14, 2014

Last thing! This is just and interesting question and very hard to answer- like a mystery in the Spanish language. Sometimes you have to take the full context into consideration as well rather than just the sentence. : ) - jphip, May 14, 2014