Sell Your Used Bike in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to sell your used bike in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• use the imperfect subjunctive to express doubt and denial

• talk about selling an item

• use vocabulary related to bicycles

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjective

Spanish	English
usado	used

examples
Dudaba que necesitaran una bici usada. I doubted they'd need a used bike.

Adverb Phrases

Spanish	English
con atención	carefully
en el momento	on the spot

examples
No parecía que la examinaran con atención. It didn't look like they examined it carefully.
Dudaba que la repararan en el momento. I doubted they'd repair it on the spot.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el comprador, la compradora	buyer
la entrega	delivery
el freno	brake
la rebaja	discount
la señal	deposit

examples
No creía que fuera a encontrar un comprador. I didn't think I'd find a buyer.
No parecía que la entrega fuera fácil. It didn't look like the delivery was easy.
Dudaba que los frenos funcionaran bien. I doubted the brakes would work well.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Spanish	English
negociar	to negotiate
regatear	to haggle
transportar	to transport

The Imperfect Subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive (el imperfecto de subjuntivo) follows many of the same rules as the present subjunctive. Introduced with a preterite, imperfect, conditional, or past perfect WEIRDO verb in the independent clause, the imperfect subjunctive often refers to a previous experience, but it can also refer to unlikely events or possibilities.

Finding the Imperfect Subjunctive Stem

The imperfect subjunctive uses the third person plural of the preterite (minus the -ron). The third person preterite form of a verb, whether regular or irregular, becomes the base for the imperfect subjunctive stem.

Imperfect Subjunctive Endings

When conjugating the imperfect subjunctive, you can choose from two different sets of endings. Both are correct, though the first set, whose yo ending is -ra, is more widespread. For this reason, we use the -ra endings in these lessons.

Subject	Subjunctive 1 Endings	Subjunctive 2 Endings
yo	-ra	-se
tú	-ras	-ses
él, ella, usted	-ra	-se
nosotros, nosotras	-ramos	-semos
vosotros, vosotras	-rais	-seis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	-ran	-sen

Imperfect Subjunctive Uses

The imperfect subjunctive can be used to talk about past occurrences, current opinions of past events, doubts and wishes, as well as in if clauses and polite requests.

The following phrases, which indicate doubt and denial, indicate that we need to use the imperfect subjunctive:

Spanish	English
dudaba que	I doubted
no creía que	I didn’t think
no parecía que	it didn’t look like, it didn’t seem like

Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish

What's Verbal Periphrasis?

In Spanish, a verbal periphrasis is a verbal construction made of two verb forms, a conjugated form and an impersonal form (an infinitive, a present participle, or a past participle). Verbal periphrasis is used in the informal future, the present progressive, and the perfect tenses. You can learn more about verbal periphrasis in this article.

In this skill, you saw the following verb that is followed by the infinitive:

Spanish	English
fuera a	would, was going to

Quiz Yourself!

Want more practice with the vocabulary you learned in these lessons? Click here!

Spanish Conversation

Fantastic! Let's put the grammar and vocab from above to the test in the following example of a conversation in Spanish.

Julia:

El otro día puse mi bici a la venta. No creía que mi bici le interesara a nadie.

The other day I put my bike up for sale. I didn't think anyone would be interested in my bike.

Efrén:

¿Qué pasó?

What happened?

Julia:

No creía que me fueran a llamar tan rápido. ¡Me llamaron quince minutos después de publicar el anuncio!

I didn't think they'd call me so quickly. They called me fifteen minutes after publishing the ad!

Efrén:

¿Te pagaron?

Did they pay you?

Julia:

Sí. Dudaba que aceptaran pagar en efectivo, pero me pagaron.

Yes. I doubted they'd agree to pay in cash, but they paid me.

Efrén:

No parecía que la revisaran detenidamente, Julia. Era una bici usada — ¡muy usada!

It didn't look like they inspected it carefully, Julia. It was a used bike—really used!

Want to learn more about how to sell your used bike in Spanish? Check out the following articles!

• Shopping in Spanish

• Subjunctive vs. Indicative

• Imperfect Subjunctive