Question 1

Why is sacara in the imperfect subjunctive if the action was already completed?

Accepted Answer

This is a key feature of Latin American Spanish. Even though taking off the wire is a finished fact in the past, it is extremely common in Latin America to use the imperfect subjunctive (sacara) after después de que instead of the preterite indicative (sacó).

Question 2

Is lavamos in the present or past tense here?

Accepted Answer

It is in the preterite (simple past) tense. For regular -ar verbs, the nosotros form is exactly the same in both the present and the preterite. Context tells us it is past tense because the action in the second half of the sentence is also in the past.

Question 3

Why does the sentence use las manos instead of nuestras manos?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, you rarely use possessives like nuestro or mi with body parts. Because we already used the reflexive pronoun nos (to ourselves), it is obvious whose hands are being washed, so you simply use the definite article las.

Question 4

Can sacar mean 'to take off'? I thought it meant 'to take out'.

Accepted Answer

Sacar broadly means 'to remove' or 'to extract'. In this context, if the wire was wrapped around something or attached to it, 'to take off' or 'to remove' is the most natural English translation.

Nos lavamos las manos después de que él sacara el alambre.

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