Breakdown of Es increíble que hayas anticipado el jaque mate.
ser
to be
que
that / than
increíble
incredible
haber
(auxiliary) have
Questions & Answers about Es increíble que hayas anticipado el jaque mate.
Why do we use the present perfect subjunctive (hayas anticipado) instead of the present perfect indicative (has anticipado)?
The phrase es increíble que is an impersonal expression that states a value judgment or emotion. In Spanish, these expressions always trigger the subjunctive mood in the dependent clause that follows them.
Could I use the past subjunctive here and say Es increíble que anticiparas...?
Yes, you can! Using the past subjunctive (anticiparas or anticipases) translates to "It is incredible that you anticipated..." Using the present perfect subjunctive (hayas anticipado) translates to "you have anticipated." Both are grammatically correct, but hayas anticipado strongly connects a recently completed action to the present moment.
How do you make a compound phrase like el jaque mate plural?
When making a compound noun consisting of two separate words plural, usually only the first word changes. So, "the checkmates" would be los jaques mate. Note that it can also be written as a single word, el jaquemate, which simply becomes los jaquemates.
Jaque mate sounds exactly like "checkmate." Are they related?
Yes! Both the English and Spanish terms share the exact same root. They were borrowed from Arabic, which originally took the term from the Persian phrase "shāh māt" (meaning "the king is helpless"). Because chess is an ancient, international game, the vocabulary evolved alongside each other across languages.