¿En qué estaría pensando cuando lo hizo? - does the concional imply past here?

Gabor E.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

¿En qué estaría pensando cuando lo hizo? - does the concional imply past here?

I translate this with "what would she be thinking when she made it", is that correct? What confuses me a bit is that "estaría" is used to describe events in the past but it is present here. This is still just a 'condicional simple', correct?

Elsewhere I found an example where "¿Qué estaría pensando ella?" is being translated with "what was she thinking?" Again, the past seems to be implied here.

Asked 3 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Gabor

Yes, we use the conditional sometimes, as shown in that sentence, to "speculate about something that happened in the past". It is as if we were saying "[I wonder] what she was thinking [then]. 

Here is a Kwiziq lesson on this topic. Have a look here.

I hope it helps.

Saludos

Inma

Gabor E.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Thank you Inma, I found this lesson after posting the question.

As this seems to be a B2 content, it might we worth mentioning this use on the general condicional simple page. Because at first I couldn't find the info because I only looked at B1 and below.

Again, thank you!

¿En qué estaría pensando cuando lo hizo? - does the concional imply past here?

I translate this with "what would she be thinking when she made it", is that correct? What confuses me a bit is that "estaría" is used to describe events in the past but it is present here. This is still just a 'condicional simple', correct?

Elsewhere I found an example where "¿Qué estaría pensando ella?" is being translated with "what was she thinking?" Again, the past seems to be implied here.

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