Why Imperfect subjunctive?

Shirley S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Why Imperfect subjunctive?

Ojalá yo ________ un hijo a los 33 años. I hope I have a son by the time I'm 33.(HINT: Conjugate "tener" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)For “Have a son”, why not use subjunctive? Doesn’t Imp subj mean HAD a son?Thanks
Asked 4 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Shirley

We are using the subjunctive. But in English it wouldn't work if we said "I hope I had a son by the time I'm 33", because we are talking here about a future event, so we have to say it in the present "I hope I have..." 

In Spanish, you can either use the present subjunctive or the imperfect subjunctive (ojalá tenga...- ojalá tuviera); the imperfect subjunctive would create the idea of "less probability".

We are testing conjugation here so we can only admit "tuviera" -the hint is asking for conjugation of the imperfect subjunctive of tener.

I hope this clarified it.

Saludos

Inma

Why Imperfect subjunctive?

Ojalá yo ________ un hijo a los 33 años. I hope I have a son by the time I'm 33.(HINT: Conjugate "tener" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)For “Have a son”, why not use subjunctive? Doesn’t Imp subj mean HAD a son?Thanks

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