Spanish Verb Sequencing

Question

¡Hola a todos!

I'm a Spanish major, and I have a question about verb sequencing in Spanish with respect to the imperfect subjunctive. I know you can say things like, "Me sorprende que vinieras acá," but you have to say, "Espero que te haya ido bien." I was wondering when it's okay to use the present tense and the imperfect subjunctive together vs when I have to use the perfect tense and present perfect subjunctive.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Oct 15, 2016

Welcome to spanishdict. We ask that all new members complete their profiles with their native language, and what level of Spanish you feel you are, like, beginner, intermediate, etc. as well as gender. - ray76, Oct 15, 2016

Answer 1

"Me sorprende que vinieras acá," but you have to say, "Espero que te haya ido bien."

The first sentence sounds incorrect to me. I would rephrase it to say--en tiempo presente:

Me sorprende que hayas venido acá. I have never seen tenses mixed like you did on the first sentence.

You can put everything in the past and say, "Me sorprendió que vinieras acá." but that construction isn't used much. Your second sentence: "Espero que te haya ido bien." is OK.

There may be other native speakers with a different take. My Spanish is partly from Spain where I was born, and partly from CSULA where I got my degree.

Answer 2

Daniella: I would translate " I'm surprised that you would come here"? as " me sorprende que vinieras acá" . But I guess this is wrong then. (I'm just at an intermediate spanish level). So how do you say:" I'm surprised that you would come here"? in spanish.

Thanks

Nevermind I guess it actually expresses the same thing as "me sorprende que hayas venido aca" ( not native english either) - BenVP, Oct 16, 2016