Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ojalá pintaran el mural que estamos diseñando. - I wish they would paint the mural that we are designing.

To form the imperfect subjunctive, you always start with the ellos/ellas form of the past tense (preterite). For pintar, that is pintaron. Next, you drop the -ron part and add the new -ra endings. Since the subject here is 'they', we add -ran, giving us pintaran.

Why use the imperfect subjunctive (pintaran) after ojalá instead of the present subjunctive?

The word ojalá can trigger either tense, but they mean different things. If you use the present subjunctive (Ojalá pinten), it means 'I hope they paint' which feels like a real possibility. Using the imperfect subjunctive (Ojalá pintaran) translates more to 'I wish they would paint', which sounds like a hypothetical dream or something less likely to happen.

Why does the sentence use a present tense (estamos diseñando) right after a past subjunctive form (pintaran)?

They describe two different realities. Estamos diseñando (we are designing) is an actual, ongoing action happening right now in the real world. On the other hand, pintaran does not actually refer to the past here; the imperfect subjunctive is just the grammatical tool we use after ojalá to express a present or future hypothetical wish.

Since ojalá means 'I wish', why isn't the first verb conjugated for 'I'?