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Cuentan,y podría

 

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  #1  
Old December 20, 2009, 12:34 AM
raji raji is offline
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Cuentan,y podría

I am reading a fable and it starts like this.

"Cuentan,y podría ser que fuera cierto,que en tiempos de antigua Grecia..."

Though I understand what cuentan and podría mean but am not able to get the context.

Saludos,
Raji
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  #2  
Old December 20, 2009, 02:37 AM
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Perikles Perikles is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by raji View Post
"Cuentan,y podría ser que fuera cierto,que en tiempos de antigua Grecia..."
Contar (to tell e.g. a story)
They say, and it could be that it is true, that in the time of Ancient Greece....

(Or in idiomatic English : Once upon a time (and perhaps it was true) .....)
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Old December 20, 2009, 07:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Perikles View Post
Contar (to tell e.g. a story)
They say, and it could be that it is true, that in the time of Ancient Greece....

(Or in idiomatic English : Once upon a time (and perhaps it was true) .....)
was/were?
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Old December 20, 2009, 07:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chileno View Post
was/were?
Definitely indicative, not subjunctive. So was or is, although if one is true, then so is the other.
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Old December 20, 2009, 07:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Perikles View Post
Definitely indicative, not subjunctive. So was or is, although if one is true, then so is the other.
Not in Spanish...
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Old December 20, 2009, 08:22 PM
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Hmmm... I think I will agree (for once) with Hernán...
"Was" fits better the mood of "podría ser que fuera cierto".
I feel the sentence unnecessarily pompous though. It could just be "podría haber sido cierto" or "podría ser cierto".
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Old December 20, 2009, 09:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by raji View Post
I am reading a fable and it starts like this.

"Cuentan,y podría ser que fuera cierto,que en tiempos de antigua Grecia..."

Though I understand what cuentan and podría mean but am not able to get the context.

Saludos,
Raji

In the context of the word Cuentan, they want to say that are telling something it.

In the part where appear podria que fuera cierto, it's like that you would say it could be true anything you say.
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