Learn Spanish (Latin America): Él prefiere encerrarse y descansar en la hamaca como si estuviera cansado. - He prefers to lock himself in and rest in the hammock as if he were tired.

Él prefiere encerrarse y descansar en la hamaca como si estuviera cansado.

He prefers to lock himself in and rest in the hammock as if he were tired.

Breakdown of Él prefiere encerrarse y descansar en la hamaca como si estuviera cansado.

to be (location/state)

Questions & Answers about Él prefiere encerrarse y descansar en la hamaca como si estuviera cansado.

Why is estuviera in the past subjunctive when the rest of the sentence is in the present tense (prefiere)?

The phrase como si (as if) is always followed by the past subjunctive (like the imperfect subjunctive used here), regardless of the tense in the main clause. It introduces a hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situation. Even though his preference is happening right now in the present, he is acting as if he were tired, which is hypothetical.

Why is encerrar used reflexively as encerrarse here?

The base verb encerrar means to lock up, put away, or enclose something. By adding the reflexive pronoun se, it becomes encerrarse, meaning to lock oneself in or to shut oneself away.

Does the reflexive pronoun se on encerrarse also apply to descansar?

No, descansar (to rest) is not a reflexive verb. Both encerrarse and descansar are simply two separate infinitives that follow the main conjugated verb prefiere. He prefers to do two distinct things: lock himself in (reflexive) and rest (not reflexive).

Just as a quick refresher, why do we use a form of estar (estuviera) instead of ser (fuera) with cansado?