Breakdown of No es que rechace el viaje, sino que mi prioridad es ahorrar.
ser
to be
no
no, not
mi
my
que
that / than
el viaje
trip
ahorrar
to save (money)
sino
but (rather)
rechazar
to reject
la prioridad
priority
Questions & Answers about No es que rechace el viaje, sino que mi prioridad es ahorrar.
Why do we use the subjunctive rechace after no es que?
The phrase no es que introduces a "rejected reason" — an explanation you are explicitly denying. In Spanish, when you state that something is not the cause or the reality of the situation, it triggers the subjunctive mood.
Why is the second verb, es, in the indicative mood rather than the subjunctive?
While the first half of the sentence uses the subjunctive to reject a false reason, the second half uses sino que to introduce the actual reason. Because you are declaring this real priority as a fact, you must use the indicative mood (es).
Why do we use sino que here instead of just sino?
You need sino que because the contrasting idea contains a new conjugated verb (es). If you were just contrasting nouns, adjectives, or infinitives without a conjugated verb (for example, no quiero viajar, sino ahorrar), you would use sino by itself.
Wait, doesn't the verb rechazar end in -zar? Why is rechace spelled with a "c"?
This is a mandatory spelling change. In Spanish, the letter "z" generally changes to a "c" whenever it is followed by an "e". Because the present subjunctive ending for the yo form of an -ar verb is -e, rechazar becomes rechace to follow normal spelling rules.
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