Learn Spanish (Latin America): Dudo que esa sea la sede hacia la cual caminamos. - I doubt that that is the headquarters towards which we are walking.

Dudo que esa sea la sede hacia la cual caminamos.

I doubt that that is the headquarters towards which we are walking.

Breakdown of Dudo que esa sea la sede hacia la cual caminamos.

Questions & Answers about Dudo que esa sea la sede hacia la cual caminamos.

Why use la cual here instead of just que?

After most prepositions, especially multi-syllable ones like hacia, you can't use just que. You need a complex relative pronoun to mean "which." Because la sede is feminine singular, you use la cual. You could also use la que here, though la cual sounds just a little bit more formal or precise.

Can I translate the English phrasing directly and put hacia at the end of the sentence?

No, in Spanish you can never end a sentence or a clause with a preposition. While in English we often say "the headquarters we are walking towards," Spanish strictly requires the formal structure "the headquarters towards which we walk" (la sede hacia la cual caminamos).

Why is the verb ser in the subjunctive here (sea)?

The sentence starts with Dudo que (I doubt that). Expressing doubt or denial always triggers the subjunctive mood in the clause that follows it, so the indicative es becomes the subjunctive sea.

Since there is doubt in the sentence, why doesn't caminamos also change to the subjunctive?

The doubt only applies to the identity of the building (whether it sea the headquarters). The action of the speakers walking towards it is a known, real fact happening right now, so caminamos stays in the normal indicative mood.