Deberíamos esperar a que ella nos cuente.

"We should wait for her to tell us." Since we are on the subjunctive these days... Shouldn't the above sentence be better said: - Deberíamos esperar a que ella nos contara. or - Debemos esperar a que ella nos cuente.

I am still learning the basic structure of the "Subject A +Verb A + que + Subject B + Verb B Nosotros Debemos esperar que ella nos cuente (subjunctive present) contara is imperfect subjunctive past Is debemos present? cuente How about deberíamos ? contara In 18.5 of the Platinum the "should" is being discussed as conditional. Maybe the sentence above might mean something else.

Aurora, I hesitate a bit to post these kinds of questions in the forum. They are important to me because these structures are used everywhere and, I think, implemented pretty consistently - I want to master them. That said, I think only Cristian and perhaps Ricardo could answer this and it might unduly cause confusion for others. Your questions though are quite relevant: - "debemos" is present / "cuente" is present subjunctive - "deberíamos" is conditional / "contara" is imperfect subjunctive For me these are paired: one goes with the other. Hence my question why the original phrase was "conditional" - "present subjunctive".

Hola amigos, It seems to me as well that the sentence should be using the imperfect subjunctive paired with the conditional. Sometimes in everyday speech things are not grammatically correct, perhaps that is the case here? I hope Cristian offers his perspective as a native speaker as I'm in the dark on this also. I'm assuming this is from RS and perhaps it's one of the occasional errors. Saludos, Ricardo

Please keep wading into the weeds. I enjoy these grammatical discussions. I would not be surprised if both are forms are correct but convey slightly different meanings and connotations.

Steven, please do not hesitate to post your comments and/or questions. I truly enjoy the discussions even if someone might think it is over my head. For now, it might be but it's okay. It helps in my ultimate understanding. Because of all the discussions, I actually started the grammar section of the Platinum.