Breakdown of Mi abuelo siempre hacía que nos sintiéramos en casa.
la casa
the house / home (also "at home")
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
siempre
always
mi
my
el abuelo
the grandfather
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
hacer
to do, to make
nos
to us / ourselves / us (direct object)
sentirse
to feel
Questions & Answers about Mi abuelo siempre hacía que nos sintiéramos en casa.
Why doesn't the Spanish translation use an infinitive to match the English 'made us feel'?
In English, we use 'make' plus an object and an infinitive to express causing someone to do something. In Spanish, when the causer and the person experiencing the action are different, the standard structure is hacer que followed by a conjugated verb in the subjunctive. Because the grandfather acts and we feel, it becomes hacía que nos sintiéramos.
Why is sintiéramos in the imperfect subjunctive rather than the present subjunctive?
The tense of the subjunctive verb is determined by the main verb. Since the grandfather's action happened in the past (hacía is in the imperfect tense), the rules of tense agreement require the dependent verb to also be in the past (the imperfect subjunctive).
How is the form sintiéramos constructed, and why does it have an accent mark?
The imperfect subjunctive is formed using the third-person plural of the preterite. For sentirse, that is se sintieron. You drop the '-ron' to get the stem sintie-, then add the endings. The nosotros form of the imperfect subjunctive always requires a written accent on the vowel immediately before the ending, which is why it is sintiéramos.
Why is the reflexive pronoun nos used here instead of just saying sintiéramos?
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