No sabía que hablaras francés.

Sentence Discussions Spanish
#1

Does the subjunctive express surprise? I had expected the indicative, “hablabas”.

#2

From Espanol Avanzada:

*“Al usar el subjuntivo el hablante parece manifestar su duda con respecto al carácter veritativo de la subordinada”.

-No sabía que Juan tuviera novia — I didn’t know that Juan had a girlfriend (does he??)

-No sabía que hubiera que pagar por esto — I didn’t know you had to pay for this (do you??)

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#3

Looking at the corpus, I cannot really find a pattern to it. I think the choice also depends on personal preference.