Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿En qué país residirías ahora si hubieras cruzado la frontera? - In what country would you reside now if you had crossed the border?

¿En qué país residirías ahora si hubieras cruzado la frontera?

In what country would you reside now if you had crossed the border?

Breakdown of ¿En qué país residirías ahora si hubieras cruzado la frontera?

in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)

Questions & Answers about ¿En qué país residirías ahora si hubieras cruzado la frontera?

Why do we use the simple conditional (residirías) instead of the conditional perfect here?

This is a mixed conditional. The hypothetical action happened in the past (si hubieras cruzado), but its consequence is happening right now in the present, which is emphasized by the word ahora. Because the result affects the present, we use the simple conditional (residirías) rather than the conditional perfect.

Could I use hubieses cruzado instead of hubieras cruzado in this sentence?

Yes, absolutely. The past perfect subjunctive has two valid forms for the auxiliary verb: hubiera and hubiese. Both si hubieras cruzado and si hubieses cruzado mean the exact same thing, though the form ending with -ra is generally more common in spoken Spanish.

In everyday English, we often put the preposition at the end of the sentence. Why does En go at the very beginning of this Spanish question?

Spanish does not allow you to leave a preposition at the end of a sentence. You must always place the preposition immediately before the question word or noun it belongs to, which is why this sentence must begin with ¿En qué país...?.

Would it be grammatically correct to start the sentence with the si clause instead?

Yes, you can reverse the clauses without changing the meaning: ¿Si hubieras cruzado la frontera, en qué país residirías ahora? Just remember that when the si clause comes first, it is typically separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.