Word
Preferiría que repartieras los volantes hoy.
Meaning
I would prefer that you hand out the flyers today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Preferiría que repartieras los volantes hoy.
los
the (masculine plural)
hoy
today
preferir
to prefer
que
that / than
Questions & Answers about Preferiría que repartieras los volantes hoy.
Why is repartieras in a past tense (imperfect subjunctive) if the action happens hoy (today)?
Even though the action is happening today, the main verb preferiría (I would prefer) is in the conditional tense. In Spanish, when a verb of influence or emotion is in the conditional, it always triggers the imperfect subjunctive in the second half of the sentence, regardless of whether the event is present or future.
If I want to sound more direct, can I use the present tense instead?
Yes! If you change the main verb to the present tense (prefiero), it triggers the present subjunctive instead. You would say Prefiero que repartas los volantes hoy (I prefer that you hand out...). Using preferiría que repartieras just makes the request softer and more polite.
How do I remember how to conjugate repartieras?
To form the imperfect subjunctive, you always start with the ellos/ellas/ustedes form of the preterite (simple past). For repartir, that is repartieron. You drop the -ron at the end and add the imperfect subjunctive endings. For tú, you add -ras, giving you repartieras.
Since preferiría can mean I, he, she, or you (formal) would prefer, is it okay to add yo?