Question for Spanish native speakers

[zompist]

I have conflicting information on these sentences from two native speakers:

(1) Aceptaremos a cualquiera con quien te cases, excepto si es metodista.
(2) ... excepto si fuera metodista.
We will acccept anyone you marry, unless they’re Methodist.

One, from Peru, prefers (1); the other, from Spain, prefers (2).

(The intent is that the person is not known in advance. Also, this should be spoken Spanish, not written.)

Any native speakers want to opine? (Add where you're from, please.)

[mèþru]

Not a native speaker, but judging from what I know from French both would be acceptable/common.

[mèþru]

Also, cross-linguistically substituting with simpler forms is pretty common in speaking both for native and non-native speakers

[Vijay]

How many native speakers of Spanish do we have on this board to begin with? I can think of two...?

[Kuchigakatai]

I have conflicting information on these sentences from two native speakers:

(1) Aceptaremos a cualquiera con quien te cases, excepto si es metodista.
(2) ... excepto si fuera metodista.
We will acccept anyone you marry, unless they’re Methodist.

One, from Peru, prefers (1); the other, from Spain, prefers (2).

(The intent is that the person is not known in advance. Also, this should be spoken Spanish, not written.)

Any native speakers want to opine? (Add where you're from, please.)

Both (1) and (2) seem acceptable to me, but (2) is a lot more bookish and strikes me as typical of legalese. As far as spoken Spanish goes I'd only use (1). I'm from El Salvador.

How many native speakers of Spanish do we have on this board to begin with? I can think of two...?

Well, who knows what might be lurking in the dark...

I wonder what happened to that Mexican girl that was obsessed with Luciano Canepari's phonetic notation. She used to be quite active here years ago.

[jal]

I wonder what happened to that Mexican girl that was obsessed with Luciano Canepari's phonetic notation. She used to be quite active here years ago.

Don't recall her. Then there's Torco from Chile, not sure if he's still around...


JAL

[Vijay]

Then there's Torco from Chile, not sure if he's still around...

He's one of the two I can think of. The other is Ser. Torco was around pretty recently at least.

[dewrad]

I asked a former colleague who's a native Spanish speaker (from Valencia, so...), and also a teacher of Spanish in the UK. She says that 2 is correct, and that 1 is "wrong". However, I've heard her produce forms like 1 "in the wild" (i.e. something like saldré esta tarde, excepto si Tom está allí, rather than saldré esta tarde excepto si Tom estuviera allí).

[zompist]

See, by asking here I've already doubled the database.

What I'm curious about is whether the difference is mostly, or both,
a. one of register (informal vs formal)
b. Latin America vs Spain

[jal]

I asked a former colleague who's a native Spanish speaker (from Valencia, so...), and also a teacher of Spanish in the UK.

Heh, at first I parsed that as you having spoken two persons :).

What I'm curious about is whether the difference is mostly, or both,
a. one of register (informal vs formal)
b. Latin America vs Spain

I would bet at least a), given:

However, I've heard her produce forms like 1 "in the wild" (i.e. something like saldré esta tarde, excepto si Tom está allí, rather than saldré esta tarde excepto si Tom estuviera allí).

It wouldn't be the first time a teacher denounced something as incorrect, while subsequently using it themselves :).


JAL

[mèþru]

I would also say a judging from my knowledge of French

[jal]

I would also say a judging from my knowledge of French

Why would French be any measure of Spanish? The languages diverged millenea ago.


JAL

[mèþru]

Because there are common processes occurring in many Romance languages regarding usage of verb forms and French and Spanish are remarkably similar minus the phonological differences

[Kuchigakatai]

The use of the subjunctive differs substantially between the two languages though. The general contexts of the subjunctive are similar, but the Devil is truly in the details.

Note examples like
- j'espère que tu viendras vs. espero que vengas
- quand tu viendras vs. cuando vengas
- si tu venais vs. si vinieras
- après que tu seras venu (or, in a less standard/formal manner, après que tu sois venu) vs. después de que vengas / hayas venido (the subjunctive is the only option)
- si tu viens et qu'il fasse beau vs. si vienes y hace sol

[Vijay]

Nitpicking, but isn't it viendras in French?

[Kuchigakatai]

Nitpicking, but isn't it viendras in French?

Yes it is.

[vegfarandi]

It's been years since I studied Spanish, but I'm surprised to see the past subjunctive in the if-clause. In Icelandic, you'd use the present subjunctive if the first sentence has present indicative:

Við samþykkjum hvaða konu sem þú vilt giftast, nema hún sé meþódisti.

If you use the periphrastic conditional tense, you'd use the past subjunctive:

Við myndum samþykkja hvaða konu sem þú vildir giftast, nema hún væri meþódisti.

But that makes the whole situation sound a lot more hypothetical.