Breakdown of De adolescente imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
Questions & Answers about De adolescente imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
Literally, de adolescente is like saying as a teenager or when (I was) a teenager.
- The preposition de here means in the role/stage of.
- Spanish often uses de + noun to talk about phases or roles in life:
- De niño = as a child / when I was a child
- De joven = as a young person
- De adulto = as an adult
You could also say cuando era adolescente, and it would be correct.
De adolescente is just a shorter, very natural way to set the time frame in Spanish, especially in storytelling.
The understood subject is yo (I).
Spanish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- imaginaba (imperfect, 1st person singular) → I imagined / I used to imagine
You can say Yo, de adolescente, imaginaba que…, but the yo is usually only added for emphasis or contrast. Native speakers often leave it out when it’s obvious from context.
Imaginaba (imperfect) suggests an ongoing, repeated, or habitual action in the past:
- De adolescente imaginaba… = As a teenager, I used to imagine / I would imagine
If you said imaginé, you’d be talking about one specific act of imagining in the past:
- Un día imaginé que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
One day I imagined that living near a volcano would be exciting.
So in the original sentence, the imperfect matches the idea that this was a recurring thought during adolescence, not a single event.
Here, que is a conjunction meaning that, introducing a subordinate clause that is the content of what was imagined.
Structure:
- Main clause: (Yo) imaginaba = I imagined
- Subordinate clause: que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante = that living near a volcano would be exciting
Together:
Imaginaba que… = I imagined that…
Vivir is an infinitive functioning like a noun (a verbal noun), similar to English living:
- vivir cerca de un volcán = living near a volcano
Inside the clause:
- vivir cerca de un volcán is the subject of sería:
- Vivir cerca de un volcán (subject) sería emocionante (predicate).
→ Living near a volcano would be exciting.
- Vivir cerca de un volcán (subject) sería emocionante (predicate).
If you said que vivía cerca de un volcán, it would mean:
- I imagined that I lived near a volcano (a finite verb with a subject implied).
So:
- que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante = that living near a volcano would be exciting (general idea)
- que vivía cerca de un volcán = that I lived near a volcano (about “me” living there)
The original focuses on the idea of that kind of life being exciting, not on a narrative where “I actually lived there” in the imagination.
Sería (conditional) is used to express a hypothetical situation or future in the past:
- From the past point of view (de adolescente), living near a volcano was an imagined, not real, situation. So we say:
- sería emocionante = would be exciting
Compare:
- Imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán será emocionante.
This is odd because será is future from now, not from that past viewpoint. - Imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán era emocionante.
Grammatically possible, but it sounds more like you believed it was exciting (as a fact), not that it would be if it happened.
Sería nicely captures: “In that imagined scenario, it would be exciting.”
The standard and most common expression is cerca de:
- cerca de un volcán = near a volcano / close to a volcano
Cerca a does exist regionally, but cerca de is considered the neutral, correct form in standard Spanish (including most of Latin America).
So you should learn and prefer:
- cerca de la playa = near the beach
- cerca de mi casa = near my house
- cerca de un volcán = near a volcano
Un volcán is indefinite: it means a volcano, not a specific one.
- un volcán → any volcano, in general
- el volcán → a specific volcano that both speaker and listener know about
Here, the person is imagining the idea of living near some volcano, not talking about a particular, known volcano.
That’s why un volcán is used.
Emocionante means exciting or thrilling.
Adjectives ending in -e are usually invariable for gender:
- un volcán emocionante (masculine singular)
- una experiencia emocionante (feminine singular)
The form only changes for plural:
- volcanes emocionantes
- experiencias emocionantes
So emocionante stays the same regardless of masculine/feminine in the singular.
Yes, that word order is also correct and natural:
- Imaginaba que sería emocionante vivir cerca de un volcán.
Both versions are fine:
- …que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
- …que sería emocionante vivir cerca de un volcán.
The difference is very slight in emphasis:
- Version 1 slightly highlights living near a volcano as the main idea.
- Version 2 slightly highlights would be exciting first and then clarifies what would be exciting.
In everyday speech, both are perfectly normal.
Yes, you can say:
- De adolescente me imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
The me makes imaginar(se) reflexive and can give a nuance of:
- picturing oneself in that situation
- daydreaming, fantasizing
Nuance:
- Imaginaba que vivir cerca de un volcán sería emocionante.
I imagined / I thought the idea of living near a volcano would be exciting (more general). - Me imaginaba viviendo cerca de un volcán.
I pictured myself living near a volcano (more personal, visual).
In your original sentence, without me it’s still perfectly natural and already implies it was your own imagination, given the context.