Breakdown of Si adoptáramos otro pez, tendríamos que limpiar el acuario más a menudo.
nosotros
we
otro
other
tener que
to have to
limpiar
to clean
Questions & Answers about Si adoptáramos otro pez, tendríamos que limpiar el acuario más a menudo.
Why is adoptáramos used after si?
Because this sentence is talking about a hypothetical situation: if we adopted another fish. In Spanish, a common pattern for unreal or unlikely present/future situations is:
si + imperfect subjunctive + conditional
So here:
- Si adoptáramos otro pez = If we adopted another fish
- tendríamos que limpiar... = we would have to clean...
This is the Spanish equivalent of English If we did X, we would do Y.
Why is tendríamos in the conditional?
Tendríamos is the conditional form of tener. In this sentence, it means we would have to.
The structure is:
- tener que + infinitive = to have to do something
- tendríamos que limpiar = we would have to clean
It is in the conditional because it matches the hypothetical idea introduced by si adoptáramos.
Why isn’t it si adoptaríamos?