Breakdown of Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo sin avanzar en la lección.
Questions & Answers about Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo sin avanzar en la lección.
In this sentence, pongo is in the present indicative, not the subjunctive, because:
- The speaker is talking about a real, general situation or habit, not a hypothetical one.
- In Spanish, for real/habitual conditions you use:
Si + present indicative → present indicative
Example: Si estudio, apruebo. – If I study, I pass.
You would use the subjunctive in patterns like:
- Si pusiera/pusiese el cronómetro, no perdería tiempo.
- Si hubiera puesto el cronómetro, no habría perdido tiempo.
Those describe hypothetical or unreal situations.
Here, the sentence describes what usually happens, so pongo (indicative) is correct.
Using el cronómetro suggests a specific, known timer — probably the one the person normally uses.
- Si no pongo el cronómetro…
→ If I don’t set *the timer (the usual one I use)…*
If you say:
- Si no pongo un cronómetro…
→ If I don’t set *a timer…*
That sounds more generic, like any timer. It’s not wrong, but Spanish often uses the definite article where English might use a or no article at all, especially for familiar, routine items.
In a routine/habit context, el cronómetro is more natural.
In this context, poner el cronómetro means to set/start the timer/stopwatch.
In Latin American Spanish, poner is very commonly used with devices:
- poner la alarma – to set the alarm
- poner la lavadora – to start the washing machine
- poner música – to put/play music
So poner el cronómetro is understood as turning it on / starting it / setting it, not physically placing it somewhere.
Dejar pasar is literally “to let pass”, and in this expression:
- dejo pasar el tiempo ≈ I let time go by / I let time slip away / I waste time.
Grammatically, it’s dejar + infinitive (“let/allow + verb”):
- dejar hablar – to let (someone) speak
- dejar entrar – to let (someone) in
You could say pasar el tiempo in other contexts (e.g. to spend time), but dejar pasar el tiempo emphasizes that you are allowing time to pass without doing something useful, almost like a mild self-criticism about wasting time.
A more literal alternative would be:
- Dejo que el tiempo pase.
But dejar pasar el tiempo is shorter and more idiomatic here.
The phrase dejar pasar el tiempo is a fixed, very common collocation in Spanish. The definite article el is normally used here.
You could grammatically say dejo pasar tiempo, but it sounds less natural and weaker. Dejo pasar el tiempo feels more like:
- I let the time (that I have) go by
- I let my time slip away
The article helps make “time” sound a bit more concrete and bounded, which fits the idea of “wasting” it.
Sin + infinitive means “without doing [something]”.
- sin comer – without eating
- sin decir nada – without saying anything
- sin avanzar en la lección – without making progress in the lesson
So sin avanzar en la lección = without progressing in the lesson / without making progress in the lesson.
You could also split it into two clauses:
- Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo y no avanzo en la lección.
Both are correct; sin + infinitive is just a more compact way of expressing “without doing X.”
All three can appear in real usage, but they’re not equally common or neutral:
- avanzar en la lección – very common, natural:
- to make progress *in the lesson*
- avanzar con la lección – also used, especially colloquially:
- to move forward *with the lesson*
- avanzar la lección – sounds more like to move the lesson forward / to speed the lesson up (more object-focused), and is less common in this personal, self-focused context.
For a learner saying “make progress in the lesson,” the most standard phrasing is:
- avanzar en la lección
Spanish usually drops the subject pronoun when the verb ending already shows who the subject is:
- pongo clearly indicates yo (I).
- dejo also clearly indicates yo.
So yo is unnecessary in neutral speech.
You can say:
- Si yo no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo…
That adds emphasis on I:
- If *I don’t set the timer (as opposed to someone else), I let time pass…*
So it’s grammatically correct; it just shifts the focus slightly.
Yes, you can reverse them:
- Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo sin avanzar en la lección.
- Dejo pasar el tiempo sin avanzar en la lección si no pongo el cronómetro.
Both are grammatically correct and natural.
Notes:
- When the si-clause comes first, a comma is standard:
- Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar…
- When the main clause comes first, usually no comma before si:
- Dejo pasar el tiempo… si no pongo el cronómetro.
Meaning is the same; it’s just a different emphasis/order.
Both si and cuando are possible, but they differ slightly in nuance:
Si no pongo el cronómetro…
→ If I don’t set the timer…
Emphasizes a condition: in any situation where I fail to set it, this is what happens.Cuando no pongo el cronómetro…
→ When(ever) I don’t set the timer…
Emphasizes time/frequency: on those occasions when I don’t set it, this is what happens.
In practice, in a habitual statement like this, both are natural. Si leans more conditional, cuando more temporal.
Yes. The present indicative in Spanish has several uses; one of them is to express habits and general truths, just like in English:
- Si no pongo el cronómetro, dejo pasar el tiempo…
→ If I don’t set the timer, I let time pass…
→ Also naturally understood as Whenever I don’t set the timer, I let time pass…
So the present here describes a repeated, typical pattern of behavior, not just a single moment.
Both involve time going by, but the focus and responsibility are different:
dejo pasar el tiempo
- Literally: I let time pass.
- Focus: I actively allow it, I’m kind of responsible for wasting time.
- Slightly self-critical.
se me pasa el tiempo
- Literally: time passes itself on me → time goes by (without me noticing / unintentionally).
- Focus: it feels more involuntary, like time just slips away.
In your sentence, dejo pasar el tiempo fits because it matches the idea: If I don’t set the timer, I end up (consciously or negligently) letting time go by without progressing.
In Latin American Spanish:
- cronómetro usually refers to a stopwatch (counts up).
- temporizador refers more specifically to a countdown timer (e.g., kitchen timer, oven timer), but it’s less common in everyday speech for many people.
- Many speakers just say “el timer” informally, especially referring to phone apps or digital devices (influenced by English).
In this sentence, el cronómetro is natural and widely understood. If you want to be more specific about a countdown timer, you could say:
- Si no pongo el temporizador…
- Si no pongo el timer… (colloquial, anglicism)
But cronómetro works fine for a generic “timer” in many everyday contexts.