Breakdown of ¡Ojalá no hubiera rozado el cono!
no
no, not
haber
(auxiliary) have
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
el cono
the cone
rozar
to graze
Questions & Answers about ¡Ojalá no hubiera rozado el cono!
Why does this sentence use "hubiera rozado" instead of the imperfect subjunctive, like "rozara"?
Hubiera rozado is the past perfect (pluperfect) subjunctive, used here because the wish is about a past event that already happened and cannot be changed (a regret). If you used the imperfect subjunctive (¡Ojalá no rozara el cono!), you would be making a wish about the present or future, meaning "I wish I weren't grazing the cone!" or "I hope I don't graze the cone!"
How do we know who the subject is, since "hubiera" can mean "I" or "he/she"?
We only know it is "I" from the surrounding context or the provided English translation. The form hubiera is used for both the first person (I) and third person (he/she/it/usted). Without context, this sentence could equally mean "I wish he/she had not grazed the cone!". If you needed to clarify, you could add a pronoun: ¡Ojalá yo no hubiera rozado el cono!
Could I say "ojalá que no hubiera rozado" instead?
Is it possible to use "hubiese" instead of "hubiera" here?
Absolutely. Hubiera and hubiese are interchangeable imperfect subjunctive forms of the helper verb haber. You can safely say no hubiese rozado, though hubiera tends to be much more common in everyday Latin American speech.
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