Nfqufktc
November 06, 2025, 07:41 AM
I would appreciate it if you could look at the analysis of the following sentence:
Una chica fue a comprar sombra para los ojos que le diera un aspecto vampiresco.
So far I have seen the periphrasis “ir a haber” to have been used in the imperfect only to refer to the future-in-the-past time.
Allow me to put forward the following explanation of the pretertite of the “ir a haber”:
According to the PRET. Reminder which I have made for my reference:
PRETERIT IS NARRATIVE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRETERIT PROVIDES AMPLIFICATION / DETAIL IN TERMS OF ACTION / a CHANGE OF the IMPRESSION/ CONDITION
------------------------------------------------------------------------ACTION / IMPRESSION (completed / specific / compressed / sharply defined)
Here the form “ir a haber” is used to express INTENTION. It is her intention to buy this product that is COMPLETED (or as you indicated that “that was her intention from the very beginning”, should I infer that the STARTING POINT IS ASSERTED?).
It doesn’t matter whether she bought it or not, what matters it that she WANTED to buy it, she had made a MENTAL COMMITMENT to by a TYPE of the cosmetic product that WOULD give her that particular look.
According to its role, the subjunctive is used to project a phantom vision.
I don’t know how to explain it but this sentence is kind of in the past but at the same time it kind of refers to the future in the past.
Would you help me explain this feeling?
On the other hand,
Una chica compró sombra para los ojos que le daba un aspecto vampiresco.
The way I understand this sentence (I think it is pretty close to yours):
The urban legend says that once a girl (unidentifed person (new information) bought a can of the eye shadow that made her look like a vampire but when she applied it the second time, she started biting people.
FACT 1: she bought the product
FACT 2: product was asserted/understood to have been found on her face
I don’t feel anything that would imply a notion of future here.
Una chica fue a comprar sombra para los ojos que le diera un aspecto vampiresco.
So far I have seen the periphrasis “ir a haber” to have been used in the imperfect only to refer to the future-in-the-past time.
Allow me to put forward the following explanation of the pretertite of the “ir a haber”:
According to the PRET. Reminder which I have made for my reference:
PRETERIT IS NARRATIVE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRETERIT PROVIDES AMPLIFICATION / DETAIL IN TERMS OF ACTION / a CHANGE OF the IMPRESSION/ CONDITION
------------------------------------------------------------------------ACTION / IMPRESSION (completed / specific / compressed / sharply defined)
Here the form “ir a haber” is used to express INTENTION. It is her intention to buy this product that is COMPLETED (or as you indicated that “that was her intention from the very beginning”, should I infer that the STARTING POINT IS ASSERTED?).
It doesn’t matter whether she bought it or not, what matters it that she WANTED to buy it, she had made a MENTAL COMMITMENT to by a TYPE of the cosmetic product that WOULD give her that particular look.
According to its role, the subjunctive is used to project a phantom vision.
I don’t know how to explain it but this sentence is kind of in the past but at the same time it kind of refers to the future in the past.
Would you help me explain this feeling?
On the other hand,
Una chica compró sombra para los ojos que le daba un aspecto vampiresco.
The way I understand this sentence (I think it is pretty close to yours):
The urban legend says that once a girl (unidentifed person (new information) bought a can of the eye shadow that made her look like a vampire but when she applied it the second time, she started biting people.
FACT 1: she bought the product
FACT 2: product was asserted/understood to have been found on her face
I don’t feel anything that would imply a notion of future here.