Breakdown of El instructor dice que arranques el coche.
el coche
the car
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
decir
to say / to tell
el instructor
the instructor
Questions & Answers about El instructor dice que arranques el coche.
Why is arranques in the subjunctive here instead of the indicative arrancas?
Where is the word for "you" in this sentence? How do we know who should start the car?
In Spanish, subject pronouns are usually dropped because the verb ending gives it away. arranques is the tú (informal you) form of the present subjunctive. If the instructor were telling someone else to start the car, it would be arranque (for él/ella/usted) or arranquemos (for nosotros).
Why does the spelling of arrancar change to -qu- in arranques?
This is a spelling change to preserve the pronunciation. The infinitive is arrancar, which has a hard "k" sound. In the present subjunctive, -ar verbs take -e endings. If we wrote arrances, the "c" before the "e" would make a soft "th" or "s" sound in Spanish. To keep the hard "k" sound, the "c" changes to qu.
Can I use empezar or comenzar to say "start the car"?