Breakdown of Después de perder, ella les aconsejó mejorar la disciplina.
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
les
to them / to you (formal, plural)
perder
to lose
mejorar
to improve
después de
after (+ noun / infinitive)
aconsejar
to advise
la disciplina
the discipline
Questions & Answers about Después de perder, ella les aconsejó mejorar la disciplina.
Why do we use the infinitive mejorar here instead of the subjunctive que mejoraran?
With verbs of influence like aconsejar (to advise), permitir (to allow), or prohibir (to forbid), you have two choices when there is a change of subject. You can use que + subjunctive, or you can use an Indirect Object pronoun + infinitive. This sentence uses the second option: the indirect object pronoun les tells us exactly who is receiving the advice, which allows us to simply use the infinitive mejorar right after it.
Could we write this sentence using the subjunctive instead?
Yes! You could say ella les aconsejó que mejoraran la disciplina. Both structures are perfectly natural and mean the exact same thing. The infinitive construction is just a slightly more concise option that native speakers often prefer with these specific verbs of influence.
Why is it Después de perder and not Después de perdiendo for "After losing"?
In English, we often use an "-ing" word (a gerund) after prepositions like "after", "before", or "without". In Spanish, prepositions like de, antes de, or después de must always be followed by an infinitive, never the Spanish gerund (-ando/-iendo).
The English translation says "their discipline," so why does the Spanish sentence use la disciplina instead of su disciplina?
In Spanish, when the context makes it obvious who something belongs to, you typically use the definite article (la) instead of a possessive adjective (su). Since she is advising them to improve, it is implicitly understood that it is their own discipline they need to work on.
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