com si + Imperfect/Pluperfect Subjunctive

Subjunctive After Com Si

Level 5

Com si introduces an imagined comparison with imperfect subjunctive, or pluperfect subjunctive for an earlier event.

How It Works

Com si means as if. It presents the comparison as imagined, apparent or contrary to what the speaker knows, rather than asserting it directly. Use an imperfect subjunctive such as fos or sabés even when the main verb is present.

Compare appearance at the current moment with an imagined earlier cause. Riu com si fos una broma evaluates the situation as it appears now; riu com si hagués sentit una broma imagines something heard before the laughter. A past main verb does not by itself decide between fos and hagués estat. The timing of the comparison, rather than a blanket tense-matching rule, supplies the contrast.

Examples (3)

  1. Riu com si fos una broma.

    He laughs as if it were a joke.

  2. Riu com si hagués sentit una broma.

    He laughs as if he had heard a joke.

  3. Feia veure que no passava res, com si no ho hagués sabut.

    She acted as though nothing was happening, as if she had not known.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

com si + Imperfect/Pluperfect SubjunctiveLevel 5Subjunctive After Com Si

Learn This First

Build an imagined com si comparison before locating it at an earlier time. Place an unreal or nonasserted event before a past viewpoint.

Words in This Pattern

com si