Breakdown of Cuando llegue la próxima fase, la hormiga va a descansar.
descansar
to rest
ir
to go
a
to
llegar
to arrive
Questions & Answers about Cuando llegue la próxima fase, la hormiga va a descansar.
Why is llegue in the subjunctive mood here?
In Spanish, time conjunctions like cuando (when) require the subjunctive when they refer to a future event that hasn't happened yet. Since the "next phase" is still in the future, we use the subjunctive llegue instead of the indicative llega.
Why is it spelled llegue with a "u" instead of "llege"?
The verb is llegar. To keep the hard "g" sound of the infinitive before an "e", Spanish adds a silent "u". If we wrote llege, it would be pronounced with a soft "g" sound similar to the English "h". You will see this "-gue" spelling in the present subjunctive for all verbs ending in "-gar".
Why does próxima come before the noun fase instead of after it?
While most descriptive adjectives follow the noun in Spanish, adjectives that indicate order, sequence, or quantity (like próxima for "next", or última for "last") typically go before the noun.
Could I say descansará instead of va a descansar?
Yes! Both mean the ant will rest. Va a descansar uses the "going to" future (ir a + infinitive), which is extremely common in everyday Latin American Spanish. Descansará is the simple future tense and is also perfectly correct, though it can sound slightly more formal.