Word
Podemos mantener la armonía con tal de que dividamos los gastos.
Meaning
We can keep the harmony provided that we divide the expenses.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Podemos mantener la armonía con tal de que dividamos los gastos.
de
from / of
los
the (masculine plural)
con
with
poder
to be able to / can
Questions & Answers about Podemos mantener la armonía con tal de que dividamos los gastos.
Why do we use the subjunctive dividamos instead of the indicative dividimos here?
The phrase con tal de que (provided that / as long as) introduces a strict requirement or condition for an action to happen. Because it sets a condition that is not a guaranteed reality yet, it always triggers the subjunctive mood.
Since "we" are the subject of both "keeping harmony" and "dividing expenses", could we use the infinitive instead of the subjunctive?
Yes! When the subject is the same for both parts of the sentence, you can drop the que and use the infinitive. So, Podemos mantener la armonía con tal de dividir los gastos is perfectly correct and very common. However, using the subjunctive as shown in the example is still completely natural and frequently used.
I sometimes hear people say con tal que without the de. Is that correct?
Yes, you will hear native speakers use con tal que and con tal de que interchangeably. While con tal de que is considered the more standard form in formal grammar, both are widely used in everyday Latin American Spanish to mean "provided that".
Is mantener la armonía the standard way to say "keep the peace" in Spanish?