Breakdown of Tendríamos un problema si la competencia comprara la patente.
un
a, an, some
el problema
the problem
comprar
to buy
tener
to have
si
if
la competencia
the competition
la patente
the patent
Questions & Answers about Tendríamos un problema si la competencia comprara la patente.
Can we start the sentence with the si part instead?
Why does comprara end in -ara instead of -aba?
Why is the conditional verb tendríamos and not teneríamos?
The verb tener has an irregular root in the conditional tense. Instead of using the full infinitive tener as the base, it changes to tendr-. We then add the standard conditional ending -íamos for nosotros.
Does la competencia mean a sports tournament or contest here?
No, in a business context, la competencia refers to rival companies or competitors. If you want to talk about a sports contest or athletic event, you would usually use the word la competición or el torneo.
Could I use comprase instead of comprara in this sentence?
Absolutely. The imperfect subjunctive has two valid sets of endings. Both comprara and comprase mean exactly the same thing and are completely interchangeable, though the -ara ending is slightly more common in everyday spoken Spanish.
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