In English and Spanish, there are essentially three ways to speak: You can 1) say a statement (as exemplified on the right), you can 2) command somebody to do something, and you can 3) express a desire or talk about possibility. These are known as moods, or a type of category in which a speaker expresses their attitude toward a situation (statement, command, possibility). We have been learning the indicative mood this entire time (present tense, present progressive, preterite, etc) that talks about statements.
The Subjunctive Mood focuses on the concept of possibilty and desire. The speaker decides to create a new possibility in the world or desires something from a situation. *Note*: If this seems confusing, that's okay - the best way to understand the various ways of invoking the Subjunctive Mood is through examples, which you will see later on. For now, here are some examples in English:
There are three different subjunctive tenses: the present subjunctive, the past subjunctive, and the past perfect subjunctive. This page will focus on the first two (The past perfect subjunctive is covered in the perfect tenses page).
While the present subjunctive tense does have more irregulars than the average amount, like all tenses, it still follows a pattern of conjugation. It is so simple, it can be summed up in three steps:
| e | emos |
| es | éis |
| e | en |
| a | amos |
| as | áis |
| a | an |
The irregulars in the present subjunctive can be grouped into three different categories: The Uniques, Stem Changers, and CAR, GAR, ZAR verbs.
These words have their own unique endings, and should be memorized. However, if you really focus, you can see even see some patterns among this group.
| sea | seamos |
| seas | seáis |
| sea | sean |
| esté | estemos |
| estés | estéis |
| esté | estén |
| haya | hayamos |
| hayas | hayáis |
| haya | hayan |
| vaya | vayamos |
| vayas | vayáis |
| vaya | vayan |
| sepa | sepamos |
| sepas | sepáis |
| sepa | sepan |
| dé | demos |
| des | deis |
| dé | den |
This, once again, can be grouped into two different categories: AR/ER verbs and IR verbs. *Note: it is AR/ER verbs that are grouped together, NOT ER/IR verbs.
| Quiera | Queremos |
| Quieras | Queráis |
| Quiera | Quieran |
| Duerma | Durmamos |
| Duermas | Durmáis |
| Duerma | Duerman |
| pida | pidamos |
| pidas | pidáis |
| pida | pidan |
As simple as day.
| saque | saquemos |
| saques | saquéis |
| saque | saquen |
| llegue | lleguemos |
| llegues | lleguéis |
| llegue | lleguen |
| almuerce | almorcemos |
| almuerces | almorcéis |
| almuerce | almuercen |
Conjugating in the past subjunctive is even easier than its present form. The process of conjugating is as follows:
*Note: when "remos" or "semos" is used, an accent is needed on the last vowel before the ending
| ra | ramos |
| ras | rais |
| ra | ran |
| se | semos |
| ses | seis |
| se | sen |
Nope! All irregulars are alreade by conjugating in the preterite. Everything follows this process!
space, then backspace/delete
to see if answer is correct.In Spanish, there are specific "triggers", or scenarios, that force you to incorporate either the present or past subjunctive. Similarly, in the "Commands" section, we will talk about the third mood - the Imperative - which is simply commanding someone to do something (this requires a subjunctive tense, which is why it is included here). All of these relate to this idea of desire and possibility. Click on any of the sections to learn more.
"Es + adjective + que + clause in subjunctive"
Only times it doesn't work:
"Verb + que + subjunctive clause"
*NOTE*: This subjunctive trigger a subject change. If a person desires something for oneself - e.g. I want to buy a car - you simply use the infinitive (Yo quiero comprar...).
"Verb + que + subjunctive clause"
"Verb + que + subjunctive clause"
Always Conjunctions can be difficult, but give it time, and it'll click. These conjunctions/phrases are triggers for a subjunctive use. Notice how all of them deal with this idea of possibility. Because the event will occur later and the speaker thus cannot know for sure that it will actually occur, it requires the subjunctive.
“Main clause + conjunction + clause with subjunctive”
*Note: if there is no subject change, take out "que" and use infinitive instead of subjunctive
*Note: subjunctive and “que” are still needed even if subject does not change
Sometimes Conjunctions, despite what students may think, are actually quite simple. There are five conjunctions, and for each them, there are only three possible scenarios in which they would require a subjunctive. Let's explore them!
“Main clause + conjunction + clause with subjunctive”
*Note: if no subject change, take off “que” and use infinitive of verb
Adjective Clauses are situations when the speaker doesn't know if a certain object or thing "exists". "Exists" does not mean practically. For example, if the speaker says "I want a car that is blue", we obviously know that there is probably a blue car in the world. However, because the speaker creates this possibility of a blue car, we need the subjunctive.
Furthemore, for this case, there are two possible translations:
Now obviously, the first is more concise, and thus preferable; however, many other sentences cannot be made in the first way, and thus we resort to the second structure, using the subjunctive to talk about this possibility.
If someone asks a question that includes an adjective clause, the question includes the subjunctive. For example:
“¿Conoces a alguien que pueda cocinar?
If a person responds with yes, no subjunctive is needed. “Por supuesto. Mi padre puede cocinar.”
If a person responds with no, the subjunctive is needed. “No, no conozco a nadie que pueda cocinar”.
This deals with having a opinion about some event that occured in the past. This is best learned through examples:
"Main Clause + que + clause in past subjunctive"
Most students get confused with commands, but if you follow the various instructions below, it'll be as easy as conjugating hablar.
Commands, also known as the imperative mood, are its own category within subjunctive. There are six different types of commands (referencing the six different subjects) and within each type, there are two forms: affirmative ("do this") and negative ("don't do this"). For example, you can tell your friend to do something, and not to do something; you can tell your teacher to do something, and not to do something (and expand this to all subjects). All of them, except two, follow the same process of conjugation. The two exceptions are: affirmative tú and affirmative nosotros commands.
Whether negative or affirmative, if you use a command, you simply have to conjugate that verb in the present subjunctive. If it's negative, the "no" is in front of the verb.
For affirmative tú commands, you simply use third form of the present tense.
However, there are eight verbs that don't follow this process. Here they are with their affirmative Tú form:
When using IOPS and DOPs with commands, follow this process:
Example:
They follow the normal patterns, except for one small twist
THIS IS ONLY FOR AFFIRMATIVE NOSOTROS COMMANDS
When adding a pronoun, you must follow the following process:Example