Breakdown of Nos encantaría que ustedes usaran la parrilla.
ustedes
you (plural)
usar
to use / to wear
que
that / than
nos
to us
encantar
to love (something)
la parrilla
the grill
Questions & Answers about Nos encantaría que ustedes usaran la parrilla.
Why do we use the imperfect subjunctive form usaran here?
The main verb encantaría is in the conditional tense ("would love"). When you express a wish, preference, or emotion in the conditional, and there is a change of subject in the sentence—from "us" (nos) to "you guys" (ustedes)—the verb in the que clause must take the imperfect subjunctive form.
Why is it Nos encantaría instead of Nosotros encantaríamos?
The verb encantar works just like gustar. Instead of saying "We would love it," the Spanish structure is closer to "It would enchant us." The "it" doing the enchanting is the whole idea of you using the grill (que ustedes usaran la parrilla). Because that entire idea counts as a single singular subject, the verb takes the singular form (encantaría), and the indirect object pronoun Nos shows who receives the feeling.
Could I just say Nos encantaría que usaran la parrilla without ustedes?
I've seen imperfect subjunctive verbs ending in -se. Could I use usasen instead of usaran?
Yes! The imperfect subjunctive has two interchangeable sets of endings: the -ra forms and the -se forms. Both usaran and usasen mean exactly the same thing. In Latin America, however, the -ra endings are much more common in everyday speech.
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