¿Probamos suerte en la rifa?

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Breakdown of ¿Probamos suerte en la rifa?

• probar: to try
• la suerte: the luck
• la rifa: the raffle

Questions & Answers about ¿Probamos suerte en la rifa?

What does probamos mean grammatically here?

Probamos is the first person plural form of probar, so it literally corresponds to we try.

In this sentence, though, it is being used as a suggestion in question form, so it works like:

• Shall we try our luck...?
• Do you want to try our luck...?
• How about we try our luck...?

So the form is present tense, but the function is conversational: it suggests doing something together.

Could probamos also mean we tried?

Yes. Probamos can mean either:

• we try / shall we try (present)
• we tried (preterite)

That happens because some -ar verbs have the same spelling for nosotros in the present and the preterite.

Here, the meaning is clearly not past because:

• it is a question
• it sounds like a suggestion
• probar suerte is a common expression used this way

If it were past, the context would usually make that obvious, for example with a time word:

• Ayer probamos suerte en la rifa.
  = Yesterday we tried our luck in the raffle.

Why is there no nosotros?