Breakdown of Ojalá yo hubiera tenido la misma ambición que tú.
yo
I
tú
you (informal singular)
tener
to have
que
that / than
mismo
same / right (emphatic, e.g. ahora mismo)
haber
(auxiliary) have
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
la ambición
the ambition
Questions & Answers about Ojalá yo hubiera tenido la misma ambición que tú.
Why do we use the past perfect subjunctive (hubiera tenido) here instead of the imperfect subjunctive (tuviera)?
Ojalá triggers the subjunctive for wishes. We use the past perfect subjunctive (hubiera tenido) because this is a wish about an event that already ended in the past (I wish I had had it back then). If it were a wish about right now, you would use the imperfect subjunctive instead: Ojalá yo tuviera (I wish I had it now).
Is the pronoun yo required before hubiera tenido?
It is not strictly required, but it is highly recommended for clarity. The first-person (yo) and third-person (él, ella, usted) forms of the past perfect subjunctive are exactly the same: hubiera. Adding yo avoids any confusion about who you are wishing had the ambition.
Why is the word que used to mean 'as' in the phrase la misma ambición que tú?
In Spanish, the phrase for 'the same [noun] as' is always formed using el mismo or la misma followed by que. You only use como to mean 'as' in comparisons that do not use the word 'same', such as tan ambicioso como tú (as ambitious as you).
Why does the sentence end with the subject pronoun tú rather than ti?
When making a comparison with que, the pronoun that follows is technically the subject of an implied second half of the sentence. The full thought is la misma ambición que tú tenías (the same ambition that you had). Because it is the subject of that hidden verb, you must use tú instead of the prepositional object pronoun ti.
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