El director dijo que la fusión sería rentable.
The director said that the merger would be profitable.
Breakdown of El director dijo que la fusión sería rentable.
ser
to be
que
that / than
decir
to say, to tell
el director
the director
la fusión
the merger
rentable
profitable
Questions & Answers about El director dijo que la fusión sería rentable.
Why is sería used here instead of the future tense será?
Because the reporting verb dijo is in the past. In direct speech, the director probably said "The merger will be profitable" (La fusión será rentable). When we report a past statement about the future, the future tense (será) shifts to the conditional tense (sería). This is just like English, where "will" becomes "would".
Why do we use a form of ser (sería) rather than estar (estaría) for "would be"?
We use ser because being profitable (rentable) is an inherent characteristic or defining quality of the business merger, rather than a temporary condition, emotion, or location.
Could we use decía instead of dijo here?
Does the word rentable mean something can be rented?
It actually translates to "profitable." It comes from the word renta, which means income or return on investment in business. If you want to say something is available for rent (like an apartment), you would typically use en alquiler or en renta depending on the country.
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