Spanish language Q&A Forum

¡Hola!

I would like to pay your attention to the following constructions:

Quién + iba a/podía/podría + infinitivo de pensar, suponer... + que (+ sujeto) +  iba a + infinitivo/condicional/imperfecto de indicativo (+sujeto)

Examples taken from GRAMÁTICA DE USO DEL ESPAÑOL: Teoría y practica C1 - C2 by Luis Aragonés y Ramón Palencia. Unidad 27

¡Quién podía pensar que Lorenzo tenía dos hijas!

¡Quién podría pensar que la empresa tenía pérdidas!

Could you tell me whether the mentioned examples refer to the Present and past tenses are used because of Concordancia de Tiempos or to the Past?

If they refer to the Past, is it possible to use Pesente and Pluscuamperfecto in the second part to express different periods of time?

Regards, 

Alexander

Though it is a bit formal sounding, another way to translate the passive form in English referring to a  '"general you", i.e. people in general ',  is "ONE must/can...". For example "One must always tell the truth".

I find that helps me differentiate between "you must" - debes (a specific person), and the passive "One must" - se debe (people/individuals in general) 

Hello Inma,

I have been having difficulty choosing between the two above, I have read the lesson and the questions here.

In the lesson it states "

If we use debido a que, it can never be followed just by a noun, it needs a phrase."

But in your answer to a question here, you mention "debido a que" needs a CLAUSE, which is slightly different from a phrase in the text book I use to understand these things.  In my book it says a PHRASE is any two or more words that don't contain a verb, but a CLAUSE needs to me able to stand by itself and be understood.  Would you take a look and see if PHRASE or CLAUSE is the most appropriate for this lesson?  Gracias.