Breakdown of Ojalá tuviera un dragón rapidísimo.
tener
to have
un
a, an (masculine)
rápido
fast
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
Questions & Answers about Ojalá tuviera un dragón rapidísimo.
Why is it tuviera here, and how did we get that spelling?
We use the imperfect (past) subjunctive here because ojalá followed by this tense expresses an unlikely or impossible wish in the present, like saying 'If only I had...' or 'I wish I had...'. To figure out the irregular spelling for tuviera, you always look at the 'they' form of the regular past tense (tuvieron), drop the -ron, and add the new ending -ra.
Wait, doesn't ojalá usually trigger the present subjunctive?
Yes, when it is a realistic hope! If you say ojalá tenga un dragón, it means 'I hope I have a dragon' (implying it might actually happen). By shifting the verb to the imperfect subjunctive (tuviera), it changes the meaning from a possible hope to a hypothetical, unlikely wish: 'I wish I had a dragon.'
Could I use tuviese instead of tuviera?
Yes, you can. The imperfect subjunctive has two completely interchangeable sets of endings: -ra and -se. Both tuviera and tuviese mean the exact same thing, but the -ra endings are much more common in everyday spoken Latin American Spanish.
How does rapidísimo work? Can I just say muy rápido instead?