Breakdown of No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa u otra más fácil.
Questions & Answers about No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa u otra más fácil.
In Spain, optativa is a very common word in school and university contexts.
- Una optativa = an optional subject / elective (a class you can choose, not a compulsory one).
- You might also hear asignatura optativa, but it’s often shortened simply to optativa.
So esa optativa means “that elective (class)”, not “optional thing” in general; it’s specifically about school/university subjects.
Yes, de is normally needed here.
The structure is:
- estar seguro de + [thing]
- Estoy seguro de tu decisión. – I’m sure of your decision.
- Estoy seguro de que vendrá. – I’m sure (that) he will come.
When what follows is an indirect question with si (“whether/if”), Spanish typically uses de si:
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré… – I’m not sure whether I will choose…
Without de, No estoy seguro si… sounds incomplete or foreign-influenced in standard European Spanish. You might occasionally hear it, but de si is the normal, correct form.
No, that doesn’t work as is. Two issues:
After estar seguro de que with a negative (no estoy seguro), Spanish usually takes the subjunctive, not the future indicative:
- Natural: No estoy seguro de que vaya a elegir esa optativa.
- Unnatural: No estoy seguro de que elegiré esa optativa.
There’s also a nuance difference:
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa…
- Literally: I’m not sure whether I will choose that elective…
- It’s an indirect question (si = whether).
- No estoy seguro de que vaya a elegir esa optativa.
- More like: I’m not sure (that) I’m going to choose that elective.
- It sounds more like doubting the truth of the statement “I’m going to choose that elective” rather than presenting the choice as an open question.
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa…
Your original sentence is more naturally expressed with de si + [future / voy a + infinitive].
The future elegiré fits because the decision is in the future and not yet made.
Alternatives:
No estoy seguro de si voy a elegir esa optativa…
- Very common and natural, especially in spoken Spanish.
- Similar meaning: I’m not sure if I’m going to choose…
No estoy seguro de si elijo esa optativa…
- This sounds odd; the present doesn’t match well with the idea of a future decision still under consideration.
- Present would be more for fixed schedules or habitual actions.
So the best options are:
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa…
- No estoy seguro de si voy a elegir esa optativa…
Both are correct; voy a elegir is slightly more colloquial and very frequent.
Elegir is mostly regular in meaning, but it has a spelling/stem change in some forms:
Present:
- yo elijo (g → j before o to keep the soft sound)
- tú eliges, él/ella elige, etc.
Future and conditional:
- elegiré, elegirás, elegirá… – here the stem is eleg- with g, because it’s before e, which already gives a soft sound; no need for j.
Past (preterite):
- él eligió, ellos eligieron – vowel change e → i in some forms.
In your sentence, elegiré is a regular future form: infinitive elegir + future ending -é.
Spanish has a spelling/pronunciation rule for o (“or”):
- o becomes u before a word that starts with the /o/ sound (written o- or ho-)
to avoid the sequence o o, which can be hard to hear.
So:
- o uno u otro – “one or the other”
- 7 u 8 – “7 or 8”
- esa optativa u otra más fácil – “that elective or another easier one”
If the next word doesn’t start with an /o/ sound, you use normal o:
- esa optativa o una obligatoria – “that elective or a compulsory one”
Otra is agreeing in gender and number with optativa, which is:
- feminine
- singular
So:
- esa optativa – that elective (feminine singular)
- otra (optativa) más fácil – another (elective) that is easier
The noun optativa is understood after otra and is not repeated:
- Full form (less natural): …esa optativa u otra optativa más fácil.
- Normal: …esa optativa u otra más fácil.
Adjectives that end in -l in their basic form usually do not change for gender in Spanish:
- un examen fácil – an easy exam (masculine)
- una asignatura fácil – an easy subject (feminine)
Same for many other adjectives:
- difícil: un problema difícil / una situación difícil
- igual: un caso igual / una respuesta igual
So más fácil is the same for masculine and feminine.
Here it just agrees in number (singular), but not in gender:
- singular: más fácil
- plural: más fáciles
Yes, that’s completely correct and very common:
- No sé si elegiré esa optativa u otra más fácil.
= I don’t know whether I’ll choose that elective or another easier one.
No estoy seguro de si… and No sé si… are often interchangeable, but with a tiny nuance:
- No sé si… focuses on not knowing the answer yet.
- No estoy seguro de si… sounds a bit more like I’m uncertain / I haven’t decided / I’m not convinced yet.
In everyday speech, people use No sé si… a lot.
In this context, you need estar seguro:
- estar seguro (de algo) = to be sure / certain about something
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré… – I’m not sure whether I’ll choose…
Ser seguro doesn’t mean the same in standard usage:
- ser seguro (for things/places) = to be safe / not dangerous
- Este barrio es seguro. – This neighborhood is safe.
- For people, ser seguro is rare; you’d more often hear ser una persona segura (de sí misma) = self-confident.
So to talk about certainty/opinion, always use estar seguro (de), not ser seguro.
The word order in your sentence is the most natural:
- No estoy seguro de si elegiré esa optativa u otra más fácil.
You can technically move elegiré to the end:
- No estoy seguro de si esa optativa u otra más fácil elegiré.
…but this sounds unnatural and overly literary in modern Spanish, especially in European Spanish.
For everyday use, keep the standard SVO-like order inside the clause introduced by si:
- si + [subject (implied “yo”)] + verb + objects/complements
→ si elegiré esa optativa u otra más fácil.