Breakdown of Si resistes la tentación hoy, te sentirás mejor mañana.
tú
you
mañana
tomorrow
hoy
today
si
if
sentirse
to feel
mejor
better
resistir
to resist
la tentación
the temptation
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Questions & Answers about Si resistes la tentación hoy, te sentirás mejor mañana.
Why do we use the present indicative in the si clause (resistes) rather than the future tense?
Spanish uses different “if”-clauses depending on how real or hypothetical the situation is.
- For a real or likely condition, you use si + present indicative in the first clause and future indicative in the second:
• Si resistes la tentación…, te sentirás mejor. - You never put the future in the si clause (e.g. Si resistirás … is incorrect).
- For a more hypothetical idea, you’d say si + past subjunctive and conditional:
• Si resistieras la tentación, te sentirías mejor.
Why is there a reflexive pronoun te in te sentirás?
The verb sentirse is pronominal, which means “to feel (a certain way).”
- Te is required because you’re describing how you feel.
- Without te, sentirás would be transitive (“you will feel something”), not reflexive (“you will feel yourself in a better state”).
Why do we say mejor instead of bien after sentirás?
Bien is an adverb meaning “well,” but mejor is a comparative adjective/adverb meaning “better.”
- Te sentirás bien = “you will feel well/good.”
- Te sentirás mejor = “you will feel better (than you feel now).”
Since the sentence compares how you’ll feel tomorrow vs. today, mejor is the natural choice.
Why is there an accent mark on sentirás, but not on resistes?
It’s all about Spanish stress rules:
- Words ending in a vowel, “n” or “s” are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
- Sentirás ends in “s” but is stressed on the last syllable (sen-ti-RÁS), so it needs an accent to override the default rule.
- Resistes ends in “s” and is naturally stressed on the penultimate syllable (re-SIS-tes), so no written accent is needed.
Why do we put a comma after the first clause, and is it always necessary?
When a subordinate clause starts the sentence, you must separate it from the main clause with a comma:
- Correct: Si resistes la tentación hoy, te sentirás mejor mañana.
- If you reverse the order (main clause first), the comma before the si clause becomes optional:
• Te sentirás mejor mañana si resistes la tentación hoy.
Why aren’t hoy and mañana preceded by articles? Are they adverbs here?
Yes—they function as adverbs of time, not as nouns.
- As adverbs, hoy (“today”) and mañana (“tomorrow”) modify the verbs directly and never need an article.
- If you treat mañana as a noun (“the morning” or “the future”), you would add an article: el mañana, but that changes the meaning.
Can we reverse the order of the clauses, and does the punctuation change?
Absolutely. You can say:
Te sentirás mejor mañana si resistes la tentación hoy.
In that case, the comma is optional before the si clause. It’s common in Spanish to drop the comma when the subordinate clause follows the main clause.
Could I use vas a sentir instead of sentirás, or the conditional te sentirías? How do they differ?
Yes, you have choices:
- Futuro simple (te sentirás) is direct and a bit more formal: “you will feel.”
- Futuro perifrástico (vas a sentir) is colloquial and emphasizes immediacy: “you’re going to feel.”
- Conditional (te sentirías) would imply a more hypothetical or polite tone: “you would feel,” which doesn’t match the real-future sense of this sentence.