Breakdown of Tenemos que decidir qué hacer en caso de que se nos dañe el mapa cronológico.
de
from / of
tener
to have
en
in / on / at
el mapa
the map
qué
what
decidir
to decide
hacer
to do / to make
que
that / than
nos
to us
el caso
the case
dañar
to damage
se
(marker of an accidental/unintentional event)
cronológico
chronological
Questions & Answers about Tenemos que decidir qué hacer en caso de que se nos dañe el mapa cronológico.
Why do we use the subjunctive dañe here instead of the indicative daña?
The phrase en caso de que (in case) is a contingency conjunction. It always requires the subjunctive because it describes a hypothetical situation that may or may not happen in the future.
What is the purpose of se nos in se nos dañe?
This uses the accidental se structure, which expresses that something happens unexpectedly or without deliberate fault. The se makes the action passive (gets damaged), and the indirect object pronoun nos shows who is affected by this accident (literally, gets damaged on us).
Why does the Spanish say el mapa instead of nuestro mapa if the English translation says our chronological map?
In Spanish, when you use an indirect object pronoun like nos to show who is affected by an event, you generally use the definite article (el) instead of a possessive adjective (nuestro) for the object involved. The nos already makes it clear whose map is getting damaged.
Just a quick refresher: why is it el mapa and not la mapa?
Even though it ends in -a, mapa is a masculine word. It is a classic exception to the gender rules, so it always takes masculine articles and adjectives, like el mapa cronológico.
Why does qué have an accent mark in qué hacer even though this is not a question?
Question words keep their written accent even when embedded inside statements as indirect questions. Here, qué hacer translates directly to what to do.
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