Breakdown of Me sorprendió que los fanáticos esperaran afuera.
los
the (masculine plural)
afuera
outside
esperar
to wait / to hope / to expect
que
that / than
me
to me / me (direct object)
sorprender
to surprise
el fanático
fan
Questions & Answers about Me sorprendió que los fanáticos esperaran afuera.
Why is esperaran in the subjunctive instead of a normal past tense like esperaron?
Because the main verb expresses an emotion (Me sorprendió). Just like in the present tense, verbs of emotion and judgment trigger the subjunctive in the dependent clause that follows. Since the emotion happened in the past, the following verb must be in the past (imperfect) subjunctive.
Why does the sentence start with Me sorprendió instead of Yo sorprendí?
The verb sorprender works structurally like gustar. The event itself (that the fans waited) is the grammatical subject doing the surprising, and you (me) are the indirect object receiving the feeling. It translates literally as 'It surprised me that...'
Could I use esperasen instead of esperaran here?
Yes, esperasen is also grammatically correct and means the exact same thing. Both are valid forms of the imperfect subjunctive. However, in Latin American Spanish, the -ra endings like esperaran are much more common in everyday speech than the -se endings.
Would it be correct to use fuera instead of afuera at the end of the sentence?
In Latin American Spanish, afuera is the preferred adverb for saying people are 'outside' in a general sense (like outside a building). Fuera is more commonly used in Spain, though in Latin America you will frequently see fuera when it is followed by de to specify a location, such as fuera del hotel (outside of the hotel).
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