What tense do I use in these sentences?
Hi!
I got these questions wrong and I don't know why. I tried every form of the verbs I could think of and I still don't know why I'm getting the sentences wrong because the website I'm using just says you got the answer wrong and not what the correct answer is... so anyways, I'm really confused. What should these sentences be?
A menos que (venir) temprano no vas a poder entrar al concierto.
¿Viste a alguien (entrar) por esa puerta?
Gracias!
5 Answers
You are right, the first one is subjuntive because it´s an uncompleted action and when the action of the subordinate clause is pending or indefinite, the verb in the subordinate clause will be in the subjunctive, for example when we use "unless, until, as soon as, when... and we are talking about something doesn´t happen yet. Usually with this group of subjunctive we use the future tense.
When I visit my mum, she is always very happy. Cuando visito a mi madre, ella siempre está muy contenta. When I visit my mum, she will be very happy.Cuando visite a mi madre, ellá estará muy contenta.
In the first one, we talk about an habitual situation. In the second one, we talk about an specific situation in the future (we don´t visit my mum yet)
Usually in Spanish when we use two verbs together we conjugate the first one and we use the infinitive form for the second one.
Quiero comer un helado. Prefiero vivir en España. Necesito comprar una casa. La vi salir de casa.
But, be careful, this is not always. When we use the present progressive we have two verbs but we use the gerund for the second one. We use "estar + gerund"
He is eating an apple. Está comiendo una manzana.
Also we use gerund after some verbs, for example, "continuar, seguir" (continue, go on), or for instance: llevar + gerund to express how long you have done something.
¿Continúas estudiando? Llevo estudiando 2 horas. I´ve been studying for 2 hours
With another verbs you can use both, infinitive and gerund, for example with "ver". Above I said, La vi salir de casa. But you can say also: la vi saliendo de casa, so you emphasize the length of the action.
It´s a very short explanation but I hope it helps you.
Nope, wait I figured out the second one too. It's the infinitive form...which I suppose kind of makes sense. If anyone could explain it to me, I'd really appreciate it!
You did good!
In Spanish we use infinitive in place of the English gerund, ie: Lo vi entrar / I saw him entering.
Nope, wait I figured out the second one too. It's the infinitive form...which I suppose kind of makes sense. If anyone could explain it to me, I'd really appreciate it!
Update: I figured out the first one. It's present subjunctive. Still have no idea on the second though.
Try translating them to English to determine what tense you would use in English. This will give you an idea.
