Breakdown of Mi hermana dice que quienquiera que venga, no vamos a abrir la puerta.
no
no / not
la hermana
the sister
abrir
to open
la puerta
the door
mi
my
ir
to go
a
to
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
decir
to say / to tell
venir
to come
quienquiera que
whoever
Questions & Answers about Mi hermana dice que quienquiera que venga, no vamos a abrir la puerta.
Why is venga in the subjunctive instead of the indicative viene?
The phrase quienquiera que (whoever) introduces a generalizing relative clause about an unknown person. Because we don't know the specific identity of the person who might arrive, the action is considered indefinite or hypothetical. This requires the present subjunctive venga.
Does quienquiera change if we expect multiple people?
Why are there two instances of the word que in dice que quienquiera que venga?
They are doing two different jobs. The first que translates to "that" and introduces the reported speech (Mi hermana dice que... meaning "My sister says that..."). The second que is simply a mandatory, fixed part of the expression quienquiera que (whoever).
Why is vamos in the indicative if decir que can sometimes trigger the subjunctive?
The verb decir only triggers the subjunctive when used to give a command or influence someone, like "My sister tells us to not open the door" (Mi hermana dice que no abramos la puerta). In this sentence, dice is just reporting a factual statement ("My sister says that..."), so the main action of her statement remains in the indicative (no vamos a abrir).
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