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¡Ojalá fueras más valiente para deshacer este desastre!

¡Ojalá fueras más valiente para deshacer este desastre!
If only you were braver to undo this disaster!
From Lesson 228:Unreal wishes (ojalá)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of ¡Ojalá fueras más valiente para deshacer este desastre!

ser
to be
para
for
este
this
más
more
el desastre
disaster
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
deshacer
to undo
valiente
brave

Questions & Answers about ¡Ojalá fueras más valiente para deshacer este desastre!

Why is fueras in a past tense if the sentence is about right now?
Fueras is the imperfect (past) subjunctive of ser. When we pair ojalá with the imperfect subjunctive, it expresses an unreal or impossible wish about the present. It translates to 'If only you were' and implies that, unfortunately, right now you are not.
Does ojalá always need the word que after it?
No, adding que after ojalá is completely optional. You will often hear both ojalá fueras and ojalá que fueras in Latin America, and they mean the exact same thing.
Why use a form of ser (fueras) for being brave, instead of estar?
We use ser because being brave (valiente) is viewed as a core personality trait. Even though the speaker wants you to act bravely right now, they are expressing a wish that you were a braver person by nature.
Why do we use para before deshacer instead of por?
You must use para here because it expresses a specific goal or purpose, translating to 'in order to'. Whenever you want to say 'in order to do something', you use para followed by an infinitive verb (a verb in its original unconjugated form, like deshacer).
Is the verb deshacer related to hacer?
Yes! The prefix des- in Spanish often works exactly like 'un-' in English. By attaching it to hacer (to do or make), you get deshacer, which means 'to undo' or 'to unmake'.

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