why isn't the imperfect subjunctive used here?

Question

Excerpt from an article from the May 2014 edition of Think Spanish about Carlos Thays, an important landscape architect in Argentina:

Thays llegó a Argentina en 1889. Un importante empresario de Córdoba lo había convocado para que diseñara el Parque Sarmiento en esa ciudad. Cuando Carlos Thays terminó la tarea, el entonces intendente de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Francisco Bollini, quiso nombrarlo Director de Parques y Paseos de la ciudad. El paisajista se sintió halagado por el reconocimiento, pero indicó que sólo estaría interesado en el cargo si se llamaba a concurso abierto.

I am wondering about the last sentence, which I would translate as follows: He stated that he would only be interested in the position if an open recruitment were held (or, if the position were held open to the public).

Here, you have the conditional tense (estaría) followed by the imperfect tense (se llamaba). My (unreliable) instinct would be to use the imperfect subjunctive tense (se llamara). Why is my instinct wrong?

Excellent question, as usual. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 3, 2016

Great question :) - FELIZ77, Aug 4, 2016

Answer 1

Bosquederoble is absolutely correct. In this case the conditional form of estar is actually indicative as action about to happen but in the past and so it matches the indicative clause after si.

Answer 2

pero indicó que sólo estaría interesado en el cargo si se llamaba a concurso abierto

For what it is worth, that would be my instinct as well, that being a classic combination of a hypothetical if clause.

However conditional can have several uses- and in Spanish I have seen it in the place of "iba a" (was going to).

We do the same in English- I told him I was going to do it later (and I did)- I told him I would do it later (and I did). Nothing hypothetical.

pero indicó que sólo iba a estar interesado en el cargo si se llamaba a concurso abierto

In the above sentence I do think the tenses match.

So here I think the conditional is being used in that sense, and not a hypothetical sense.

This is just my feeling as a fellow learner, await other thoughts as well

Answer 3

Taking into account the helpful input of both Bosquederoble and JulianChivi, here are some further thoughts.

The general rule is that the imperfect subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses when the verb in the main clause is in the imperfect, preterit, past perfect, or conditional. BUT, and I think this is where I went wrong, the foregoing statement is true PROVIDED THAT THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE MAIN CLAUSE TO TRIGGER THE SUBJUNCTIVE. In other words, Carlos Thays indicated that he would only be interested....etc. He didn't prefer that, want that, etc. He indicated that... So there wasn't anything in the sentence I was asking about to trigger the subjunctive. Sound right?

Answer 4

Taking into account the helpful input of both Bosquederoble and JulianChivi, here are some further thoughts.

The general rule is that the imperfect subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses when the verb in the main clause is in the imperfect, preterit, past perfect, or conditional. BUT, and I think this is where I went wrong, the foregoing statement is true PROVIDED THAT THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE MAIN CLAUSE TO TRIGGER THE SUBJUNCTIVE. In other words, Carlos Thays indicated that he would only be interested....etc. He didn't prefer that, want that, etc. He indicated that... So there wasn't anything in the sentence I was asking about to trigger the subjunctive. Sound right?