Quote from a movie

[mwtzzz]

I'd like a translation of the following sentence from a movie:
"They were afraid that if they destroyed the witch's heart, their friend would lose his immortality."

"Ellos tenian miedo que si destruyeran el corazon de la bruja, su amigo perderia su inmortalidad".

Is this correct? Is it correct to use the past subjunctive of "destruir" ?

[aleCcowaN]

"... si destruían el corazón ..."

[mwtzzz]

I don't understand why the past tense (destruían) instead of the past subjunctive (destruyeran). The action did not occur, it's something that could have/might have occurred, but didn't.

[poli]

If you want to get the subjunctive in on this you would have to follow the rule: conditional followed by imperfect subjunctive.
si distruiría el corazón, perdiera a su inmortalidad

[mwtzzz]

Escrito originalmente por poli

If you want to get the subjunctive in on this you would have to follow the rule: conditional followed by imperfect subjunctive.
si distruiría el corazón, perdiera a su inmortalidad

No, that's not correct. It's the other way around: the subjunctive goes with the "if" statement and the result would either be a subjuntive itself or a conditonal. Some examples:

si comprara ese libro, lo leería esta noche
(if I bought this book, I would read it tonight)
si escribieras un libro, serias un autor
(if you wrote a book, you would be an author)

[poli]

Yes, that's right.

[mwtzzz]

so, I'm pretty sure my original sentence is correct:
ellos tenian miedo que si destruyeran el corazon ......


although now that I think about it, maybe it isnt', because if you convert this to present tense, you don't use the subjunctive, you simply use the present tense:

ellos tienen miedo que si destruyen el corazon, el perderá su inmortalidad...

[aleCcowaN]

I'm sorry but with destruyeran it's almost agramatical.

You can write the paragraph from a present time of the story or from a past one:

"Y entonces pensaron «Si destruyéramos el corazón de la bruja, él perdería la inmortalidad»

"temían que si destruían el corazón de la bruja, él perdería la inmortalidad"

Just by choosing a past time of the story ("temían") you should leave imperfect subjunctive out. You're right about the conditional construction as a whole and the anecdotal bit telling they didn't do it, but anyway the fact remains all of that already happened and it's history -and you chose a past time frame to tell the story, that is, you are telling past events while you are standing in the present time-

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Alec is right.
The verb right after the conditional "si" is only a past subjunctive if you're talking about a hypothetical situation:

- Si destruyeran el corazón de la bruja, él perdería su inmortalidad. -> The heart of the witch hasn't been destroyed, but it's being considered what would happen if it were.

[mwtzzz]

Ok, so if I'm understanding this, by putting the "temian" o "tenian medio" this puts in in past tense so I need to leave the subjunctive out:

"Temían que si destruían el corazon, el amigo perdería su inmortalidad."

But if I am stay in the present to talk about would happen if the heart was destroyed, then I need to use the subjunctive:

'Si destruyeran el corazan, el amigo perdería su inmortalidad"

Is that correct?

(by the way this is from the movie the Last Witchhunter)