Breakdown of Capaz que el cielo se despeje antes del amanecer.
de
from / of
que
that / than
el cielo
sky
antes
before / earlier
capaz que
maybe / perhaps
despejarse
to clear up (weather)
el amanecer
the dawn / sunrise
Questions & Answers about Capaz que el cielo se despeje antes del amanecer.
Why is se despeje in the subjunctive here?
The phrase capaz que is a very common Latin American expression for "maybe" or "it's possible that". Because it expresses doubt or a guess about the future, it often triggers the subjunctive form se despeje (from despejarse). You could also use the present indicative here (se despeja) if you felt more certain, but the subjunctive sounds perfectly natural for a guess about the weather.
Could I just use tal vez instead of capaz que in this sentence?
Absolutely. Capaz que means exactly the same thing as tal vez or quizás. It is simply a highly colloquial and widely used alternative in Latin America for everyday spoken Spanish. All of these expressions follow similar rules for choosing between the indicative and subjunctive depending on your level of certainty.
Why does the sky need the reflexive pronoun se in se despeje?
Why do we say antes del amanecer instead of just antes de amanecer?
Amanecer is an infinitive verb that means "to dawn", but it is also very commonly used as a masculine noun meaning "dawn" or "sunrise". Because it is treated as a specific noun here, it takes the article el. When the preposition de (from the phrase antes de) meets el, they must contract into del.
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