Question 1

Why does the sentence use cuyas if Los guerreros is masculine?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, the word for "whose" (cuyo, cuya, cuyos, cuyas) must match the gender and number of the thing being owned, not the owner. Even though the warriors (los guerreros) are masculine, the word for battles (batallas) is feminine and plural. Therefore, it becomes cuyas batallas.

Question 2

Could I say las batallas de quienes instead of cuyas batallas to mean "whose battles"?

Accepted Answer

No, that would sound very unnatural. English speakers often try to translate "whose" by using de quien or de quienes (of whom), but when "whose" acts as an adjective sitting right next to the noun it modifies, you should always use the correct form of cuyo.

Question 3

Why does this sentence use fueron (preterite) but tenían (imperfect) when both verbs are in the past?

Accepted Answer

We use the preterite fueron (were) because it sums up the terrible battles as completed, historical events with a start and end. We use the imperfect tenían (had) because their obligation to survive was an ongoing, continuous state in the background of the story.

Question 4

What is the rule for using que after tenían here?

Accepted Answer

The phrase tener que means "to have to" do something. Whenever you use tener to express an obligation, you must include que right before the infinitive verb. Here, it connects the conjugated verb tenían with the action they had to do: sobrevivir (to survive).

Los guerreros, cuyas batallas fueron terribles, tenían que sobrevivir.

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