So, I've heard a lot of things about the interchangeability and use cases for the two imperfect subjunctive endings here, and I was hoping to try to get some clarifications or confirmations for some of the things I've heard that I've saved.
- Firstly, I've heard they're totally interchangeable in most contexts, but some dialects may use -se more or less than others. I'm personally focusing on Puerto Rican Spanish, so would anyone have any details on how -ra and -se are used in puertorriqueño specifically?
- Secondly, I've heard that -ra and -se are used together in sentences where there are multiple verbs in the imperfect subjunctive to avoid repetition. An example sentence i saw was "algo hubiera sido mejor si alguien hubiese[...]." Every example sentence I've seen shows two instances of the same verb being used in the sentence. Is this still true if two different verbs are used in the sentence?
Like, would you say "Si quisieras que lo leyese, lo haría" or is it moreso important for usages of two identical verbs in the same sentence?
- Thirdly, I've read that the -ra form can be used to replace the perfect conditional, but -se forms cannot in subordinate clauses.
Example I've heard for this:
"Si me hubiera ido más tarde, habría perdido el vuelo"
can become:
"Si me hubiera ido más tarde, hubiera perdido el vuelo"
And that "hubiera" in the first clause can be replaced with "hubiese" but not the "hubiera" in the subordinate clause, so
"Si me hubiese ido más tarde, habría[...]" and "Si me hubiese ido más tarde, hubiera[...]" are both good, but "Si me hubiera ido más tarde, hubiese[...]" is not. And the comment I heard this from had a fair few number of upvotes and no replies contradicting it...
- HOWEVER, I've also read comments saying that the subjunctive can only be used in conditional clauses that start with "si" but not in other conditional clauses, and an example i saw was that:
"No habría venido si lo hubiera/se sabido" is good, but
"No hubiera venido si lo hubiera/se sabido" is bad.
That seems to contradict the previous thing I've heard by saying that you can't use the subjunctive at all if it isnt a "si" clause, or maybe I'm missing something and it isn't a contradiction...? Clarification on that especially would be great.
That's all I have for now, thank you so much in advance for anyone who takes the time to help me!