Breakdown of Duvidava que o ditador tivesse perdido a guerra.
ter
to have
perder
to lose
que
that (conjunction)
a guerra
the war
Questions & Answers about Duvidava que o ditador tivesse perdido a guerra.
Why do we use the subjunctive here instead of the indicative (tinha perdido)?
The verb duvidar (to doubt) expresses uncertainty. Whenever you have a main clause expressing doubt, emotion, or a subjective opinion followed by the word que, it forces the verb in the following clause into the subjunctive mood.
How exactly is the Pluperfect Subjunctive (tivesse perdido) formed in this sentence?
It is built using a compound structure. You take the Imperfect Subjunctive of the auxiliary verb ter (which is tivesse for the third-person singular subject o ditador) and add the past participle of the main verb, which is perdido (from perder).
Why do we use the Pluperfect Subjunctive (tivesse perdido) instead of the Imperfect Subjunctive (perdesse)?
The Pluperfect Subjunctive is used to show that an action happened before another past action. The feeling of doubt was already in the past (duvidava), but the potential loss of the war happened even earlier. If you used perdesse, it would mean you doubted he was losing the war at that exact same moment.
The English translation says I doubted, but couldn't duvidava also mean he or she doubted?