Tratara

[Stu]

A book I am reading contains

como si se tratara en un sueño

Should it be tratará
Could they mean future tense.
Doesn’t seem to fit

Why not just trata

[poli]

It's the subjunctive of tratar, and it sounds correct to me. Even in English como si (as if) is followed by the subjunctive (as if it were).

[wrholt]

I concur with poli: the sentence means "as if it were in a dream". "se tratara/tratase" is the imperfect subjunctive of "tratar". The expression "como si" often introduces a clause whose main verb is in the imperfect subjunctive, particularly when the clause following "como si" is not actually true.

[Stu]

Thank you

My mistake