"Yo que tú" meaning in context

Question

I know that "yo que tú, comprarí el coche rojo." means "If I were you, I would've bought the red car." but I'm wondering if that means he's already bought another car, or if he's still not sure which one to buy.

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Oct 25, 2016

Thank you for filling out your profile , that is worth a vote from me. - ray76, Oct 26, 2016

Answer 1

This gives nice contrast between the conditional and conditional perfect.

Your sentences don’t match-

"Yo que tú, compraría el coche rojo." "If I were you, I would buy the red car." (To me this implies the car has not been bought)

"Yo que tú, habría comprado el coche rojo." "If I were you, I would've bought the red car." (To me this implies the car has been bought)

That said, not everyone uses proper grammar. But the distinction is not made with the "yo que tú" as I see it, rather the choice of conditional or conditional perfect.

This is just my opinion as a fellow learner.

I do not know any Arabic, so I don't know if that distinction is made the same way in what I assume is your native language. The fact that is done similarly in English and Spanish is a reflection of the closeness of the languages, I think.

By the way thank you for filling out your profile.

Sorry, I meant "compraría", just a typo. This actually makes sense. I've only studied el condicional simple so that must've been why I was confused. Thanks for clarifying. - SamehMagdy, Oct 25, 2016

De nada. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 25, 2016

Your English sounds perfect to me, so I assume you know the tense in English. It is very similar in Spanish. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 25, 2016

Yeah, your examples made the distinction very clear. - SamehMagdy, Oct 25, 2016

Answer 2

If I were you means actually si yo fuera tú, which means no soy tú.
It is idiomatically used like yo que tú.

Compare:

1. Si yo fuera tú, habría comprado el auto. (= but you didn't.)
2. Si yo fuera tú, compraría el auto. (= but you're not going to.)