Breakdown of Llenamos la despensa por si acaso llega la tormenta.
llegar
to arrive
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
la tormenta
the storm
si
if
Questions & Answers about Llenamos la despensa por si acaso llega la tormenta.
Why do we use the present indicative llega here instead of the subjunctive? I thought "in case" implied doubt about the future.
In Spanish, por si and por si acaso take the indicative, not the subjunctive, when referring to a possible future event. You are taking a real action now based on a possibility, so you use the present indicative llega. You will almost never use the present subjunctive after por si.
Could I say por si acaso la tormenta llega instead of putting the verb first?
Is there any difference between using por si and por si acaso?
They both mean "in case" and follow the exact same grammar rules. Adding acaso just makes the phrase slightly more emphatic, translating closer to "just in case" rather than simply "in case."
Llenamos can mean either "we fill" or "we filled." If the English translation was "We filled the pantry," how would the rest of the sentence change?
If llenamos was past tense, the precautionary action happened in the past. To match this timeline, the present indicative llega would change to the imperfect indicative llegaba, making the sentence Llenamos la despensa por si acaso llegaba la tormenta (We filled the pantry in case the storm arrived).