Breakdown of Ayer mi hermana imaginó que comprarías un coche volador.
el coche
the car
un
a, an, some
la hermana
the sister
comprar
to buy
mi
my
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
ayer
yesterday
imaginar
to imagine
volador
flying
Questions & Answers about Ayer mi hermana imaginó que comprarías un coche volador.
Why is comprarías in the conditional tense instead of the future tense?
This sentence is an example of reported thoughts. The main verb (imaginó) is in the past. If your sister were imagining this right now, she'd use the future tense: 'I imagine that you will buy...' (Imagino que comprarás...). But because she imagined it in the past, that future tense shifts a step back into the conditional (comprarías, 'you would buy').
Why do we use the indicative mood (comprarías) here instead of the subjunctive?
In Spanish, verbs of thinking, believing, and imagining (like imaginar, creer, pensar) use the indicative mood when they are affirmative. They are treating the thought as a declared fact or a solid prediction. You typically only trigger the subjunctive with these verbs if the main statement is negative, such as No imaginó que...
Why is 'flying' translated as volador and not the gerund volando?
In English, we often use '-ing' words as adjectives (a 'flying' car). In Spanish, you generally cannot use the gerund (volando) as an adjective to directly describe a noun. Instead, Spanish uses specific adjectives, often ending in -dor, to describe the characteristic or function of a noun. So, 'a flying car' becomes un coche volador.
Is the accent mark on imaginó important here?
Yes, it completely changes the tense and the person! With the accent on the last syllable, imaginó is the past tense (preterite) for 'he/she imagined'. If you remove the accent, it becomes imagino, which means 'I imagine' in the present tense.
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