Breakdown of Las ruedas del carrito no girarían muy bien.
no
no, not
muy
very
bien
well
del
from the / of the
girar
to turn
el carrito
cart (shopping, small)
la rueda
wheel
Questions & Answers about Las ruedas del carrito no girarían muy bien.
Why is the conditional tense (girarían) translated as "probably didn't turn"?
In Spanish, the conditional tense isn't just used for hypothetical "would" scenarios. It is also used to express a guess or probability about the past. By saying no girarían, the speaker is making a logical guess about an ongoing state in the past: "they probably didn't turn" or "I bet they weren't turning."
Could I just say probablemente no giraban instead?
Yes, absolutely. Probablemente no giraban muy bien means the exact same thing. Using the conditional tense for past conjecture is simply a very natural, concise way native speakers build the idea of "probably" directly into the verb itself.
If the conditional is used to guess about the past, how would I say "The wheels probably aren't turning very well" right now?
To make a guess about the present, you use the future tense. You would say Las ruedas no girarán muy bien to mean "They probably aren't turning very well" (right now). As a rule of thumb: future tense = present guess, conditional tense = past guess.
Why use carrito instead of carro?
In Latin America, carro almost always means "car" (automobile). To talk about a shopping cart (carrito de compras), a baby stroller, or a small hand-pushed cart, you use the diminutive form carrito.
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