Breakdown of Cuando llegue el amanecer, capaz que muchos meteoros atraviesen el cielo.
mucho
many / a lot
llegar
to arrive
que
that / than
el cielo
sky
cuando
when (statement)
capaz que
maybe / perhaps
el amanecer
the dawn / sunrise
el meteoro
the meteor
atravesar
to cross (through) / to go through
Questions & Answers about Cuando llegue el amanecer, capaz que muchos meteoros atraviesen el cielo.
Why is atraviesen in the subjunctive here instead of the indicative?
The phrase capaz que is a common colloquial way in Latin America to say "maybe" or "it's possible that." You can follow it with either the indicative or the subjunctive. Using the subjunctive (atraviesen) emphasizes your doubt or makes the event feel a bit less certain than if you had used the indicative (atraviesan).
Why does the sentence start with Cuando llegue (subjunctive) instead of Cuando llega (indicative)?
We always use the subjunctive after cuando when talking about an event that hasn't happened yet. Since dawn hasn't arrived yet in this context, we must use the subjunctive llegue. If we were talking about a daily habit ("Whenever dawn arrives..."), we would use the indicative llega.
What is the infinitive of atraviesen, and why does it have an "i" in it?
The infinitive is atravesar (to cross). It is an "e-to-ie" stem-changing verb, just like pensar (to think) becoming pienso. Because the spoken stress falls on that middle syllable for the "they" form (the meteors), the "e" changes to "ie", giving us atraviesen.
Could I drop the que and just say capaz muchos meteoros atraviesen?
Yes! In spoken Latin American Spanish, people often drop the que and just say capaz followed by the rest of the sentence. Both capaz que and just capaz are perfectly natural for expressing probability at this level.
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