Breakdown of Le rogué al líder que cancelara la prohibición y el mandato.
y
and
al
to the
que
that / than
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
cancelar
to cancel
el líder
the leader
rogar
to beg
el mandato
the mandate
la prohibición
the ban / the prohibition
Questions & Answers about Le rogué al líder que cancelara la prohibición y el mandato.
Why is cancelara in the imperfect subjunctive instead of the infinitive like in English ("to cancel")?
In English, we use the infinitive to report a request ("begged him to cancel"). In Spanish, when reporting a request, command, or piece of advice in the past, you must use que followed by the imperfect subjunctive. Because the subject changes—I am the one begging, but the leader is the one who would actually do the canceling—you cannot use the infinitive cancelar.
Why is there a u in rogué?
Why do we need the pronoun le if we already specify al líder?
This is called a redundant indirect object pronoun. In Spanish, it is highly common and usually mandatory to include the indirect object pronoun (here, le) even when you explicitly name the person receiving the action (here, al líder). Think of le as a mandatory signpost pointing to the receiver of your begging.
Could I say cancelase instead of cancelara?
Yes, you can. The imperfect subjunctive has two acceptable sets of endings: the -ra forms (cancelara) and the -se forms (cancelase). They mean exactly the same thing. However, the -ra endings are much more common in everyday spoken Spanish throughout Latin America, which is why it is used in this sentence.
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