Breakdown of Si tuviera más tiempo, convencería al inversor.
tener
to have
el tiempo
the time
a
personal a (marks a person object)
más
more; else (anything else, nobody else)
Questions & Answers about Si tuviera más tiempo, convencería al inversor.
Why does this sentence use tuviera instead of the regular past tense tenía?
In English, we say 'If I had' using the normal past tense. But in Spanish, when you talk about a hypothetical or unlikely situation in the present or future, you must use the imperfect subjunctive tense after si. That is why we use tuviera instead of the imperfect indicative tenía.
Could I use tuviese instead of tuviera here?
Yes, absolutely! The imperfect subjunctive has two valid sets of endings: the -ra forms and the -se forms. Saying Si tuviese más tiempo means exactly the same thing, though the -ra form is generally more common in spoken Spanish.
Why is it al inversor and not just el inversor?
The verb convencer is an action being done to a specific person (the investor). Because of this, Spanish requires the 'personal a' before the person's noun. When the preposition a sits next to the masculine article el, they always merge into the mandatory contraction al.
Both tuviera and convencería can also be used for 'he', 'she', or 'usted'. How do we know it means 'I'?
Context usually makes the subject clear. Because the first-person and third-person singular forms are identical in both the imperfect subjunctive and the conditional tenses, Spanish speakers often add the pronoun if there is any doubt. You could say Si yo tuviera más tiempo, yo convencería... to be perfectly clear.