"They wanted that war to be the last one."

Question

"quisieron que esa guerra lo es última"

Does this translation sound right?

Answer 1

"quisieron que esa guerra lo es última"

No “querer” influencing a conjugated verb means you are rendering an opinion about a statement, not declaring something- needs subjunctive, past because this is in the past.

Normally my tendency would have been to put querer in the imperfect, but I suppose contexts could make it preterit.

La última.

My try:

Querían que esa guerra fuera la última.

More literally: They were wanting that that war would be the last one.

I am an intermediate level learner, and would await other input first.

Edit to add:

I wonder if:

Habrían querido que esa guerra fuera la última. They would have wanted that that war was to be the last.

Might be even better if you are trying with "quisieron" to give the sense that that wanting is over, as it is already proven that it was not the last war. (Are we talking WWI- the war to end all wars here?).

Answer 2

I wonder if:

Habrían querido que esa guerra fuera la última. They would have wanted that that war was to be the last.

Might be even better if you are trying with "quisieron" to give the sense that that wanting is over, as it is already proven that it was not the last war. (Are we talking WWI- the war to end all wars here?).

To use "Habrían querido" would only make sense if there were another clause of conditional nature in the same sentence, ie: " ...... si no fuera por tanto dinero que algunas fábricas amontonaron produciendo armas."

To use querer in preterite here would have the nuance of these people actually trying and then failing to make this war the last one.

Gracias, Julian. :) - bosquederoble, Mar 8, 2015