Word
Ella sintió un escalofrío, como si una aparición la hubiera tocado.
Meaning
She felt a shiver, as if an apparition had touched her.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ella sintió un escalofrío, como si una aparición la hubiera tocado.
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
un
a, an, some
la
it / her (f)
haber
to have (auxiliary)
Questions & Answers about Ella sintió un escalofrío, como si una aparición la hubiera tocado.
Why do we use the Past Perfect Subjunctive (hubiera tocado) after como si in this sentence?
The phrase como si (as if) always triggers a past subjunctive tense because it introduces a hypothetical or unreal situation. We use the Past Perfect Subjunctive (hubiera tocado) here because the imaginary action of the ghost touching her happened right before or at the exact moment she felt the shiver. It translates naturally to the English past perfect: "as if it had touched her."
Can I use hubiese tocado instead of hubiera tocado?
Yes, absolutely. The -ra (hubiera) and -se (hubiese) forms of the past subjunctive are completely interchangeable. In spoken Spanish in Spain, the -ra form is generally more common, but both are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing.
Why is the pronoun la used in la hubiera tocado instead of le?
The verb tocar (to touch) takes a direct object here because "she" is the entity directly receiving the physical action of being touched. While speakers in Spain often use le for male direct objects (a practice called leísmo), the standard direct object pronoun for a female is la.
Is an escalofrío only a shiver caused by fear?