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Ella se agachó debajo del escritorio sin que el profesor la viera.

Ella se agachó debajo del escritorio sin que el profesor la viera.
She crouched under the desk without the teacher seeing her.
From Lesson 371:Negative conditions (sin que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ella se agachó debajo del escritorio sin que el profesor la viera.

Why is viera in the past subjunctive?
The phrase sin que (without) always triggers the subjunctive. Since the main action se agachó (she crouched) is in the past tense, the following verb must be in the imperfect (past) subjunctive form viera.
Why couldn't we just use the infinitive here and say sin verla?
We use sin + infinitive only when the subject stays the same. If we said Ella se agachó... sin verla, it would mean she crouched without seeing someone else! Because the subject changes from the girl crouching to the teacher seeing, we must use sin que followed by a conjugated verb.
Why does the sentence use the reflexive se agachó instead of just agachó?
The non-reflexive verb agachar means to lower or bow a specific part of something, like agachar la cabeza (to lower one's head). When you lower your entire body to crouch or squat, you must use the reflexive form agacharse.
Why use la in la viera instead of le?
The verb ver (to see) takes a direct object. Since the teacher is seeing her, we use the feminine direct object pronoun la. While you might hear le used for people in some parts of Spain, la is the standard and correct choice in Latin American Spanish.

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