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Mi psicóloga opina que deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.

Mi psicóloga opina que deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.
My psychologist thinks that you should forgive your past mistakes and start again.
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Questions & Answers about Mi psicóloga opina que deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.

Why is it mi psicóloga and not mi psicólogo? What does the -a ending tell me?

The ending -a in psicóloga marks the feminine form of the noun.

  • mi psicólogo = my (male) psychologist
  • mi psicóloga = my (female) psychologist

In Spanish, many professions have a masculine form ending in -o and a feminine form ending in -a:

  • profesor / profesora (teacher)
  • médico / médica (doctor)
  • psicólogo / psicóloga (psychologist)

So mi psicóloga tells you that the speaker’s therapist is a woman. The possessive mi doesn’t change; only the noun changes for gender.

What is the exact meaning and nuance of opina que here? Is it like “thinks” or “says”?

Opinar means “to have an opinion” or “to think (as a personal judgement).”

Mi psicóloga opina que… = My psychologist is of the opinion that… / thinks (in her professional judgement) that…

You could also say:

  • Mi psicóloga cree que… – she believes that…
  • Mi psicóloga piensa que… – she thinks that…
  • Mi psicóloga dice que… – she says that…

Opina que is slightly more formal and emphasizes that this is her considered opinion, which fits well with a professional like a psychologist.

What tense or mood is deberías? How is it different from debes?

Deberías is the conditional form of deber (second person singular, tú):

  • deber (infinitive) – to have to / should
  • debes – you must / you have to / you should (stronger)
  • deberías – you should / you ought to (softer, more polite or tentative)

Nuance:

  • Debes perdonar tus errores… → sounds more like a rule, a strong obligation.
  • Deberías perdonar tus errores… → sounds like advice or a recommendation, softer and more “therapeutic.”

Conditional of deber:

  • yo debería
  • tú deberías
  • él/ella/usted debería
  • nosotros deberíamos
  • vosotros deberíais
  • ellos/ellas/ustedes deberían
Why is it deberías perdonar with perdonar in the infinitive, and not something like deberías perdones?

In Spanish, when deber is used as a modal verb (like “must / should”), it is followed by the infinitive:

  • deber + infinitive

Examples:

  • Deberías estudiar más. – You should study more.
  • Debemos comer mejor. – We must / should eat better.
  • No deberías decir eso. – You shouldn’t say that.

So deberías perdonar is the correct pattern:

  • deberías (you should) + perdonar (forgive)

Forms like deberías perdones are ungrammatical in this sense. The subjunctive perdones would appear after other structures, e.g. “Es posible que perdones…”, not after deber.

Why is it tus errores and not los errores or sus errores?

Tus is the possessive for tú (informal “you”, singular):

  • tus errores = your (informal, singular) mistakes
  • sus errores = his/her/your (formal)/their mistakes
  • los errores = the mistakes (no explicit owner)

In this sentence:

  • The psychologist is speaking to you informally, so she uses tú.
  • Therefore: deberías (you should) and tus errores (your mistakes) match.

If she wanted to be formal (speaking to usted), she would say:

  • Mi psicóloga opina que debería perdonar sus errores pasados…

So tus clearly marks that she’s talking directly and informally to you about your own mistakes.

What does errores pasados literally mean, and why is the adjective pasados after errores?

Literally, errores pasados = past mistakes.

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives (color, size, time, etc.) typically come after the noun:

  • coche rojo – red car
  • casa grande – big house
  • errores pasados – past mistakes

So:

  • errores pasados (normal, natural Spanish)
  • pasados errores sounds strange and is not the usual word order.

Other possibilities:

  • errores del pasado – mistakes of the past (very common, maybe a bit more emphatic or poetic)
  • tus errores pasados – your past mistakes

The post-noun position of pasados is just following the usual noun–adjective order in Spanish.

Is there any difference between errores pasados and errores del pasado?

Both are very close in meaning and usually interchangeable:

  • tus errores pasados – your past mistakes
  • tus errores del pasado – your mistakes from the past

Nuance:

  • errores pasados is slightly more compact and neutral.
  • errores del pasado can sound a bit more “literary” or emphatic, like “the mistakes of your past.”

In everyday conversation, both are fine:

  • Deberías perdonar tus errores pasados.
  • Deberías perdonar tus errores del pasado.
What does empezar de nuevo mean exactly? Is it the same as “start again” or “start over”?

Empezar de nuevo means to start again / to start over / to make a fresh start.

Very close equivalents:

  • empezar otra vez – start again
  • volver a empezar – start again / start over (literally “to start again”)

All three are used in Spain. In this therapeutic context:

  • empezar de nuevo suggests a fresh start in life, with a bit of emotional weight.
  • volver a empezar often feels similar, and is also common in emotional or motivational contexts.
Why is it perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo with only one deberías? Shouldn’t deberías be repeated?

Spanish allows one verb like deberías to govern several infinitives joined by y (“and”):

  • Deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.
    = You should forgive your past mistakes and start again.

The idea is:

  • deberías [perdonar…] y [empezar…]

Repeating deberías is possible but not necessary:

  • Deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y deberías empezar de nuevo.
    This is grammatically correct, but it sounds heavier and more repetitive. The original sentence is more natural.
Could you explain the role of que in opina que deberías…? Is it like “that” in English?

Yes. Here que is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause, just like “that” in English:

  • Mi psicóloga opina que deberías perdonar…
    = My psychologist thinks *that you should forgive…*

Structure:

  • Main clause: Mi psicóloga opina
  • Connector: que
  • Subordinate clause: deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo

In spoken English, “that” is often dropped (“My psychologist thinks you should…”), but in Spanish you normally keep que.

Why is there an accent on psicóloga and deberías?

The accents mark where the stress falls, and they also sometimes distinguish forms.

  1. psicóloga

    • Without accent, by default, psicologa would be stressed on the second-to-last syllable: psi-CO-lo-ga.
    • But the correct stress is on SI: psi-CÓ-lo-ga (actually “psicó” as a unit).
    • The accent on ó tells you to stress that syllable: psi-CÓ-lo-ga.

  2. deberías

    • The base word is deber (to have to).
    • The conditional deberías is pronounced de-be-RÍ-as.
    • Without the accent, it would be stressed on be (de-BE-rias), which is wrong.
    • The accent on í marks the correct stress: de-be-RÍ-as.

So the accents are there to guide pronunciation and avoid ambiguity.

How would this sentence change if the psychologist were talking formally to usted instead of informally to tú?

For formal usted (still one person), you change the verb and the possessive:

Original (informal tú):

  • Mi psicóloga opina que deberías perdonar tus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.

Formal (usted):

  • Mi psicóloga opina que debería perdonar sus errores pasados y empezar de nuevo.

Changes:

  • deberías → debería (3rd person, used for usted)
  • tus errores → sus errores (possessive for usted)

Everything else stays the same. The meaning becomes “My psychologist thinks you (sir/ma’am, formally) should forgive your past mistakes and start again.”