Breakdown of Deseábamos que ustedes plantaran más flores.
ustedes
you (plural)
la flor
the flower
que
that / than
más
more
desear
to wish / to desire
plantar
to plant
Questions & Answers about Deseábamos que ustedes plantaran más flores.
How exactly do we form plantaran from plantar?
To form the imperfect subjunctive, start with the third-person plural (ellos/ellas/ustedes) form of the preterite (simple past) tense. For plantar, that is plantaron. Drop the -ron at the end to get the stem (planta-), and then add the new imperfect subjunctive ending. For ustedes, the ending is -ran, giving us plantaran.
Why do we use the past subjunctive (plantaran) here instead of the present subjunctive (planten)?
The translation says "would plant." Why don't we use the Spanish conditional tense (plantarían)?
In English, we often use "would" to express what we want someone else to do in a hypothetical situation (like "I wish you would..."). In Spanish, you cannot use the conditional tense after a verb of wishing. The grammar rules of desear strictly require the subjunctive mood, so we use plantaran.
Why does deseábamos have a written accent mark, but plantaran does not?
In the imperfect tense, the nosotros form of -ar verbs always requires a written accent (-ábamos) to keep the spoken stress on the correct vowel. Plantaran, however, naturally stresses the second-to-last syllable (plan-TA-ran). Since Spanish words ending in -n naturally stress that syllable anyway, no written accent is needed.
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