Breakdown of Nos alegramos de que no haya habido ningún percance.
no
no, not
haber
to be (there is / there are)
que
that / than
ninguno
none / not any
alegrarse de
to be glad about
el percance
mishap
Questions & Answers about Nos alegramos de que no haya habido ningún percance.
Why do we use the present perfect subjunctive (haya habido) in this sentence?
The verb alegrarse (to be glad) expresses an emotion, which triggers the subjunctive for the second half of the sentence. Because we are talking about an event that occurred in the past but is tied to our current emotion ("there has not been"), we use the present perfect subjunctive. This is formed with the present subjunctive of haber (haya) and the past participle habido.
Wait, haya habido uses the verb haber twice?
Exactly! The first haya acts as the auxiliary (helper) verb "has", while habido acts as the main verb. Here, it is used impersonally to mean "there has been." Just like the present tense impersonal form is hay ("there is"), its present perfect subjunctive equivalent is haya habido ("there has been").
Why is there a de before que in Nos alegramos de que?
The pronominal verb alegrarse requires the preposition de to express what you are glad about (alegrarse de algo). When you follow it with a whole new clause introduced by que (that), the de must stay, resulting in de que. Dropping the de here is a common mistake known as queísmo.
Why do we use ningún instead of ninguno here?
The word ninguno drops its final 'o' and adds an accent mark to become ningún whenever it sits directly in front of a masculine singular noun, like percance. Also, because the verb is already negated with no, Spanish requires this second negative word to agree with the negative structure.
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