u/checkyendys

I am listening to a podcast. The host has just said:

"Más allá de que sí se acomodieron [sic-should be acomodaran] varios países,..."

My theory:

Native speakers when trying to fulfill a. subjunctive and b. past tense in the grammatical logic will sometimes unconsciously perform the present tense subjunctive logic (changing -AR to -ER/IR) and then make it past tense, therefore making an -AR verb end in -ieron or -ieran.

I then asked Gemini -

Gemini's theory:

Subjunctive is built directly off the 3rd person plural of the Preterite

comieron-->comieran, hablaron-->hablaran

The vast majority of irregular verbs in Spanish also default to this -ie- pattern in the past the -ieron / -ieran. So the brain accidentally applies this dominant -ie- blueprint to an -AR verb causing the speaker to say -ieran instead of -aran, or simply just -ieron.

OR the speaker truly just meant to use indicative here, since subjunctive is more a semantic choice in this case, and simply applied the wrong ending...

My lingering question:

I get what Gemini is saying but I am wondering if it's oversimplified. I imagined what's happening is that the brain knows that subjunctive requires the changing of AR-->ER/IR endings in the present, so it's trying to apply that into a past tense format. So the speaker either arrives at -ieron (change to ER/IR like you would in the present-->also make it past tense), or does a DOUBLE attempt at applying subjunctive (they change an AR verb to the correct subjunctive past tense ER/IR ending, -ieran).

I am reading a poem which contains the line:

vamos a cuestas del resentimiento

delirante

Metaphorically of course it sounds like we are on delusional resentment’s back. Vamos a cuestas DE él.

But if I google translate this, it says “we are burdened by delusional resentment.” In other words, he is on our back.

Who is on who’s back? Maybe my understanding of the use of “a cuestas” is incorrect. I believed “being a cuestas of him” = riding on his back. But perhaps it is more like “vamos a cuestas de él” = “vamos encargados de él”= he is on our back