Subjunctive or no?

Question

Am wondering why the following sentence was translated using the subjunctive: "My parents had a beautiful relationship their entire lives." This was given as: "Mis padres tuvieron una relación hermosa toda la vida." It seems a simple statement of fact.

Answer 1

Tuvieron is the preterite and makes sense in this sentence. It would have been tuvierAn, if it had been in the subjunctive. Just my view as an intermediate Spanish speaker.*

Thanks for your help. :) - rac1, Apr 3, 2016

Ugh! I didn't even notice that. Thanks so much. - RolloMartins, Apr 3, 2016

:) - FELIZ77, Apr 3, 2016

Answer 2

Ann is correct ...this sentence uses the preterite tense , not subjunctive mood!

If the sentence had been written as:

If my parents had a beautiful relationship their entire lives, they would have enjoyed their relationship.more.

= Si mis padres tuvieran una relación hermosa durante su vida entera, disfrutarían su relación más.

the sentence would have been written using the conditional indicative and the subjunctive.

I hope this helps

It helped me, even though I hadn't asked the question :D - Dogboy1000, Apr 3, 2016

Answer 3

I see it a a statement of opinion. From your perspective it appeared that they had a beautiful relationship, but that does not make it fact.

So since I have so much trouble with the subjunctive I would like some clarification as to me this seems like a good place to use subjunctive.

Bare, I see no call for subjunctive. Even if you said parecía que tuvieron...I think the positive would make it not subjunctive. You would need a que phrase (even if dropped and implicit) that injected some doubt. - bosquederoble, Apr 3, 2016

Es posible que tuvieran....There you are saying it is also possible not. :) - bosquederoble, Apr 3, 2016

Suponer, sospechar, parecer... I don't think any of those put enough doubt for subjunctive- they are still a declaration of how you see things. :) - bosquederoble, Apr 3, 2016