Question 1

Why is terminó in the indicative, rather than the subjunctive?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, affirmative verbs of belief or thought, like pensamos (we think), state what you consider to be a fact. Because you're declaring this belief, the following verb stays in the indicative mood (terminó). If you made it negative—no pensamos que... (we don't think that...)—it would introduce doubt, requiring the subjunctive (like terminara or haya terminado).

Question 2

Why does the sentence use mal instead of malo?

Accepted Answer

Mal (badly) is an adverb, which means it describes how an action happened. Here, it describes the verb terminó (how it ended). Malo (bad) is an adjective, which is used to describe nouns (like un debate malo - a bad debate).

Question 3

Wait, doesn't pensamos also mean "we thought" in the past tense?

Accepted Answer

Yes! For regular -ar verbs like pensar, the nosotros (we) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the preterite (simple past) tense. Without more context, pensamos could mean either "we think" or "we thought." Here, we've translated it as the present tense, but "We thought the debate ended very badly" is also a perfectly valid translation!

Question 4

Why is terminó in the preterite tense rather than the imperfect?

Accepted Answer

The preterite is used for actions that are viewed as fully completed events. The ending of the debate is a single, finished event, so we use the preterite terminó. If we were talking about an ongoing process in the past ("the debate was ending"), we would use the imperfect tense.

Pensamos que el debate terminó muy mal.

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