The Tricky Subjunctive Part III – How to use it.

Tips For Learning Spanish

¡Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.

In the previous two lessons I introduced the subjunctive verb endings and told you to memorize the  verb endings for regular AR, ER and IR verbs. In the second lesson I included the most common irregular verb endings.

Now it is time to see how the subjunctive works. I am not going to mention a lot of grammatical terms into order to simplify the process.

I want you to look at this formula which applies to 90% of the cases where you use the subjunctive. The subjunctive has to do with uncertainty. It refers to something that has not happened.

Step 1) A + B = Subjunctive.

What does this mean? In most cases If you have elements A and B in a the first half of a sentence followed by “QUE (that)”,  the verb that comes after QUE HAS TO BE IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE and refers to an event that hasn’t happened.  Remember this.

Step 2) In our formula above A represents a PERSON (subject) or THING and B represents a VERB. NOT JUST ANY VERB but CERTAIN TYPES of VERBS that affect the outcome of the second half of the sentence after QUE. Confused? I bet you are. Now let’s look at the first situation where we can apply our formula

FIRST USE OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE:

(1) With Verbs of INFLUENCE + que (that). Verbs in the first part of the sentence before  QUE that influence the outcome of what comes after QUE: wanting, desire, ordering, causing, allowing, prohibiting, persuading, requesting, insisting, needing, preventing, advising, etc.

Note: the QUE (that) which separates the two parts of the sentence is seldom translated in the examples in English below.

Example: I want you to buy a car. Yo quiero que usted compre  un carro. (A) Yo + quiero (querer which is a verb of influence (B)  followed by que , so the verb that comes after que, which refers to another person has to be in the subjunctive. In this case it is “compre” from the verb comprar.

Example:

Mi esposa desea (to desire) que yo pinte la casa. (A) My wife (a person) desires (verb of influence) (B) that I (change of subject) paint the house.

More examples:

  • Te sugiero que vayas (irregular of IR to go). I (first subject) suggest (verb of influence) that you (change of subject) go.
  • La cajera nos recomienda que contemos el dinero. The cashier recommends (verb of influence) (that) we count the money.
  • Marta nos pide que salgamos ahora. Martha asks us to leave now.
  • El profesor recomienda que estudiemos. The teacher recommends  (that) we study.
  • Yo prefiero que esperes. I prefer (that) you wait.
  • Insisto en que pintes la casa. I insist you paint the house.

In all of these examples these is one subject using a verb of influence followed by “QUE” to change the out some of affect the subject that comes after QUE

Tiquismo of the week: Ser muy gallo – to be brave or hard working