Breakdown of El mentor descansó después de que yo trasplantara el árbol.
yo
I
de
from / of
el árbol
the tree
descansar
to rest
que
that / than
después
after / afterwards
el mentor
the mentor
trasplantar
to transplant
Questions & Answers about El mentor descansó después de que yo trasplantara el árbol.
Why is trasplantara in the imperfect subjunctive if the transplanting is a completed past action?
In traditional Spanish grammar, a completed past action after después de que takes the indicative. However, in everyday Latin American Spanish, it is extremely common to use the imperfect subjunctive (trasplantara) instead. This usage is widely accepted in the Americas even though the action actually happened.
Would it be wrong to say después de que yo trasplanté?
Not at all! Using the preterite indicative (trasplanté) or the pluperfect (había trasplantado) is the traditional rule and is still the standard in Spain. As a B2 learner, you can use either, but you need to recognize the subjunctive version because you will hear it constantly in Latin America.
Why do we need que yo here instead of just the infinitive trasplantar?
We need que followed by a conjugated verb because the subject changes. El mentor is the one who rested, but yo (I) did the transplanting. If the mentor had done both actions, we would drop the que and use the infinitive: El mentor descansó después de trasplantar el árbol.
Could I use the other form of the imperfect subjunctive, trasplantase, here?
Yes, grammatically trasplantara and trasplantase are perfectly interchangeable. However, in Latin American Spanish, the -ra ending is used almost exclusively in everyday spoken language, while the -se ending sounds quite literary or formal.
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