Breakdown of Esperaba que el forastero comprara un caballo.
un
a, an, some
comprar
to buy
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
el caballo
the horse
Questions & Answers about Esperaba que el forastero comprara un caballo.
Why is comprara in the subjunctive instead of a normal past tense?
The main verb, Esperaba (I was hoping), expresses a wish or expectation. Just like espero que (I hope that) triggers the present subjunctive, expressing a hope in the past triggers the past subjunctive, which is why we use comprara.
How is the form comprara created?
To make the past subjunctive for a regular verb like comprar, you start with the 'they' form of the simple past (compraron). You drop the -ron at the end to get the stem (compra-), and then add the past subjunctive endings. Here, for el forastero (he), we add -ra to make comprara.
Could I use comprase instead of comprara here?
Yes, absolutely! The past subjunctive has two sets of regular endings: -ra and -se. Saying Esperaba que el forastero comprase un caballo is grammatically identical and means exactly the same thing. Both forms are commonly used in Spain.
Why does the English translation say 'would buy' if comprara is a past tense?
When you look back at a past hope, the action you were hoping for was in the future from that past perspective. English uses 'would' to show this ('I hoped he would do it'). Spanish handles this by using the past subjunctive (comprara) to follow the past tense trigger (Esperaba).