Breakdown of Esperábamos que los payasos trabajasen en el circo.
trabajar
to work
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
esperar
to hope
el payaso
the clown
el circo
the circus
Questions & Answers about Esperábamos que los payasos trabajasen en el circo.
Why is it trabajasen instead of the regular past tense trabajaban or trabajaron?
Because the first verb Esperábamos expresses a hope or wish in the past. Just like expressing a hope in the present triggers the present subjunctive, expressing a hope in the past requires the past subjunctive (pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo).
Where does the ending in trabajasen come from?
It is the regular past subjunctive ending for ellos (the clowns) for an -ar verb. To form it, you take the third-person plural of the simple past (trabajaron), drop the -ron, and add the past subjunctive ending -sen.
The English translation says "would work". Shouldn't that use the conditional tense trabajarían?
It is tempting to use the conditional because of the word "would" in English. However, because esperar que (to hope that) triggers the subjunctive, Spanish grammatically requires the past subjunctive (trabajasen) here, even though English uses "would" to express this past hope.
Could Esperábamos also mean "We were waiting" instead of "We hoped"?
Yes, esperar can mean to hope, to wait, or to expect. If the sentence meant "We were waiting for the clowns to work in the circus", the Spanish would look exactly the same! Waiting for an outcome also triggers the subjunctive in the second half of the sentence.
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