Past tense of "deber" Spanish speakers seem to habitually use the imperfect tense for "deber" where English speakers would use the past tense, e.g.,
"Paul owed her his life" => "Pablo le debía la vida" instead of "Pablo le debió la vida"
"You guys must've figured something out" => "Debíais haber descubierto algo" instead of "Debisteis haber haber descubierto algo"
... and sometimes where English speakers would use the present tense, e.g., "But the Lord said he must go to Ninevah" => "Pero el Señor insistió en que debía ir a Nínive" instead of "Pero el Señor insistió en que debe ir a Nínive."
They also use the imperfect in situations that seem to call for a past-tense conditional ("should have"):
Si querías baile, debías haber recurrido a mí => If you wanted dancing, you should have come to me
I would have expected "Si querías baile, deberías haber recurrido a mí" (should have). Sometimes I do see "deberías haber" for "should have", and I can't see any pattern to why one is chosen instead of the other.
In some cases, the imperfect is used where the present-tense conditional seems clearly called for, e.g., "debias esperar hasta que llamara" for "you should wait until he calls." There's nothing past-tense-ish about that sentence.
"deberían" ('they should") in particular is used interchangeably with "debían" (literally "in the past they must"), and neither is used for past-tense "they should have".
Can someone explain how Spanish speakers conceptualize these tenses of "deber"? Does the choice of tense work the same way for "deber" as "owe" and "deber" as "must", or are they treated differently?
Can you please add the audio pronunciation :)
Spanish speakers seem to habitually use the imperfect tense for "deber" where English speakers would use the past tense, e.g.,
"Paul owed her his life" => "Pablo le debía la vida" instead of "Pablo le debió la vida"
"You guys must've figured something out" => "Debíais haber descubierto algo" instead of "Debisteis haber haber descubierto algo"
... and sometimes where English speakers would use the present tense, e.g., "But the Lord said he must go to Ninevah" => "Pero el Señor insistió en que debía ir a Nínive" instead of "Pero el Señor insistió en que debe ir a Nínive."
They also use the imperfect in situations that seem to call for a past-tense conditional ("should have"):
Si querías baile, debías haber recurrido a mí => If you wanted dancing, you should have come to me
I would have expected "Si querías baile, deberías haber recurrido a mí" (should have). Sometimes I do see "deberías haber" for "should have", and I can't see any pattern to why one is chosen instead of the other.
In some cases, the imperfect is used where the present-tense conditional seems clearly called for, e.g., "debias esperar hasta que llamara" for "you should wait until he calls." There's nothing past-tense-ish about that sentence.
"deberían" ('they should") in particular is used interchangeably with "debían" (literally "in the past they must"), and neither is used for past-tense "they should have".
Can someone explain how Spanish speakers conceptualize these tenses of "deber"? Does the choice of tense work the same way for "deber" as "owe" and "deber" as "must", or are they treated differently?
Hi
I cannot see how this reading and listening exercise can help me practise que + El Presente de Subjuntivo to express a wish/commandAm I being dumb?
Julie
In Question 5 of the Test I have just completed, we had to translate: "She came near to where I was sitting" by inserting the correct word in the gap here: "Ella se acercó ________ yo estaba sentada". It did look to me as if movement was involved, so I chose "... adónde …" [plus the others which carried the accent] … But I was wrong !
Admittedly, when I clicked on "Explain this", I noticed this example:
Iremos adonde tú quieras, cariño >> We will go where (to whichever restaurant) you want, darling...
... which also involves movement, but despite that it uses 'donde' - with no accent !
[This topic has been answered above -
Thank You Inma ! ]
Hello Kwiziq,
Is there a rule for when to use 'a la calle'? I think I know the difference between por/en la calle but this 'a la calle' caught me out.
Kind regards
Dee
This page seems odd
Preferir... que... just means: prefer... than... .Doesn't it?
Preferir... en vez de... means: prefer... rather than.... Why? I don't understand.
Thank you so much
Would this be correct? No sabia si tu querias que te despertara para ir a correr esta mañana. For I didn't know if you wanted me to wake you up go running this morning
Ps thanks. This was just the grammatical question that's been bugging me
Please delete! This one was written in error!
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