Same or different meaning?
 

Hola,

Do these 2 sentences have the exact same meaning, or is there a difference?

First sentence uses the imperfect of querer and the second uses the past subjuntive.

Gracias.


1. Si (él) quería practicar español, hubiera podido hacerlo.


2. Si (él) quisiera practicar español, hubiera podido hacerlo.

Not a native speaker, but I don't think they are the same. Also, I don't think you can use the imperfect in this type of sentence, and you need to match up the tenses as in quisiera with podría and hubiera querido with habría podido.

Consider these sentences:

Si (el) quisiera practicar el español, podría hacerlo.
If he wanted to practice Spanish, he could.
If he wanted to practice Spanish, he would be able to.

Si (el) hubiera querido practicar el español, habría* podido hacerlo.
If he had wanted to practice Spanish, he would have been able to.

* many native speakers use hubiera instead of habría here, but many other native speakers consider that to be incorrect usage.

Thank you, Tomisomo.

So, I think the 3rd example (pluperfect) is the best way to express this meaning?