Question

I am working on a short essay and lack confidence in my use of tenses in some sentences. Hopefully someone can check that these are okay or help/suggest how to fix them:

1. Sus colegios estarán aquí despues de ella se haya ido. (Her colleagues will be here after she is gone.)

2. Ella tiene ambiciones y si algo no la ayudaría con sus metas, no va a hacerlo. (She has ambitions and if something does not help her with her goals, she is not going to do it.)

3. Ella pensaba que esto sería más fácil y que no necesitaría su ayuda. (She thought this would be easier and that she wouldn't need their help.)

Thank you! It is so helpful to get feedback and I do appreciate it.

Answer 1

1. después

2. ayuda = if something does not help her

3. pensaba = she was thinking (and perhaps had not yet made up her mind) vs pensó = she thought, did think (mind made up)

Sra

What would help you with the tenses? Would you like the English cues for various tenses? Excellent use of the Subjunctive in #1.

Answer 2

Thank you as always for your wonderful help.

Yes I think that the English cues would help me very much! For example, I am unsure when, for example, to use subjunctive versus a regular present. Like in #2, I can see now what you mean when I think carefully but when I first looked at it I wondered if I had triggered the subjunctive. So any hints you like to give to students would be most helpful.

The correction in #3 is very helpful to me--I should have been thinking of a limited, completed action, right, because that state of mind is gone now?

I appreciate this! It is so rewarding to me to figure out how to say something right!!!

Answer 3

The usual English for:
1. The Present Indicative "hablo" = I speak, I DO speak, I AM speaking (of course he DOES and he IS speakING)

2. The Preterit (completed action in the past with both a beginning and an end) "hablé = I SPOKE, I DID speak

3. The Imperfect (ongoing with a beginning, but as far as you know, no ending) yo hablaba = I USED TO speak, I WAS speakING and I SPOKE (the third meaning overlaps with the Preterit)

Preterit = / / / / (like snapshots)
Imperfect = ~ ~ ~ ~ (like movie camera)

*there are some special meanings in the Preterit. poder = I could/I managed (in Preterit = pude) BUT I was able, I used to (in the Imperfect = podía)
estar = Preterit like "I arrived" estuve but Imperfect like I was (estaba)
saber = Preterit "I found out" = supe but I knew/was knowing in Imperfect = sabía
querer = intended in Preterit (quise) but was wanting in Imperfect (quería)
(a few more but at the moment, I can only thing of 3 = I think it's a total of 5)

4. Future = hablaré = I WILL (SHALL, dying out in English) speak/talk

5. Conditional = hablar´ia = I WOULD speak/talk

6. Present Subjunctive = can sound like Present tense, future or even an infinitive = él quiere que yo salga = He wants me TO LEAVE, he wants that I leave, will leave

7. Imperfect/Past Subjunctive = can sound like Preterit/Imperfect/Past, Conditional or even an invinitive. = él quería que yo saliera/saliese = he was wanting me TO LEAVE, he wanted that I leave, left, would leave, etc.

8. Perfect Tense = haber in ANY tense plus past participle = he querido = I HAVE wanted / había querido = I HAD / wanted / habría querido = I WOULD HAVE wanted, etc.

9. Progressive Tense = estar + -ndo or gerund = estoy queriendo = I AM wantING / estaba queriendo = I WAS wanting / estará queriendo = I WILL BE wanting, etc.

That's MOST of it!

Sra

Answer 4

Just remembered the 5th verb with special meanings in Preterit vs Imperfect. tener = tuve = I had/grabbed in the Preterit but tenía = I had/was having, etc. in the Imperfect.


Sra

Answer 5

This is so wonderful--thank you so much for your generous comments here. It is so helpful to see the tenses as being cued by certain English phrases--and I am so glad to see how you describe #6 in a way I had not encountered and in a way I can process. The subjunctive seems hard because of its different English equivalents, but I think I understand now!

I really appreciate it--¡Muchisimas Gracias!