Breakdown of El oficial ya había llegado, y exigió que siguiéramos la indicación.
y
and
llegar
to arrive
que
that / than
ya
already / now (right now)
haber
(auxiliary) have
exigir
to demand
seguir
to follow
el oficial
the officer
la indicación
the instruction
Questions & Answers about El oficial ya había llegado, y exigió que siguiéramos la indicación.
Why is siguiéramos in the past subjunctive here?
This sentence is an example of past reported speech for a command. The first verb, exigió (demanded), is in the past tense and expresses influence or a command directed at someone else. Because of this, the following verb must be in the past subjunctive (siguiéramos) rather than the indicative.
The infinitive is seguir, so why is there an "i" instead of an "e" in siguiéramos?
The past subjunctive is always built from the third-person plural (ellos/ellas) form of the preterite. Because seguir is an irregular stem-changing verb, its ellos preterite form is siguieron (they followed). If you drop the -ron and add the nosotros past subjunctive ending -ramos, you get siguiéramos.
Why does siguiéramos have a written accent mark?
In the past subjunctive, the nosotros form always requires a written accent mark on the vowel immediately before the -ramos (or -semos) ending. This ensures the spoken stress stays on the correct syllable, exactly where it was in the original preterite form.
Why does the sentence use había llegado instead of the simple past llegó?
Había llegado is the past perfect tense. It is used here to establish a clear timeline of events: the officer's arrival happened earlier in the past, entirely before he made his demand (exigió).
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