Breakdown of ¿Estará dañada la varita? Ojalá supiera el hechizo.
estar
to be (location/state)
saber
to know (facts) / to hear from (someone)
la
the (feminine)
dañado
damaged
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
el hechizo
spell
la varita
wand
Questions & Answers about ¿Estará dañada la varita? Ojalá supiera el hechizo.
Why is it supiera and not a regular form like "sabiera"?
Supiera is the imperfect subjunctive of saber (to know). To form the imperfect subjunctive of any verb, you start with the ellos/ellas form of the preterite (simple past). For saber, that form is the highly irregular supieron. You drop the -ron at the end to get the stem supie-, and then add the imperfect subjunctive endings (-ra, -ras, etc.) to get supiera.
Why do we use a past tense form (supiera) if the person is wishing for something right now?
When ojalá is followed by the imperfect subjunctive, it expresses a present or future wish that is contrary to fact or highly unlikely. Just like in English where we say "I wish I knew" (using a past tense word for a present wish), Spanish uses the past-tense subjunctive to show that the speaker doesn't actually know the spell in reality.
Why does the first sentence use the future tense (estará) to mean "Could it be"? Shouldn't that mean "Will it be"?
In Spanish, the future tense is frequently used to express a guess, wonder, or probability about the present moment. This is often called the "future of probability." By asking ¿Estará dañada la varita?, the speaker is really saying "I wonder if the wand is damaged?" or "Could it be damaged right now?"
Why use estar (estará) instead of ser (será) with dañada (damaged)?
We use estar because being damaged is a physical condition or state that the wand is currently in as the result of something happening to it. If you used ser here, it would form a passive voice sentence meaning "Will the wand be damaged [by someone or something]?" rather than describing how the wand currently wand is.
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