The Subjunctive 5J

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The Subjunctive5J

• Richt E. Rubio

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The Subjunctive

• Spanish has three "moods" which reflect various
  states of mind. First, the indicative mood
  indicates facts. The subjunctive mood reflects
  subjective feelings and the abstract. The
  imperative mood reflects commands. Examples of
  the indicative mood are "John goes to college"
  and "it is raining". The indicative mood ONLY
  indicates facts. The subjunctive mood, on the
  other hand, reflects subjective feelings such as
  wishes, doubt, and emotions.

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The concept

• For example I hope that John goes to collegeI
  doubt that John will go to college.I am glad
  that John is going to college.All three cases
  above reveal a subjective expression on behalf of
  the first subject. Curiously, none of these
  feelings has any impact on John going to college.
  In cases such as these, the following pattern is
  used

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The concept

• Subject 1 indicative verb of hope/
  doubt/emotion subject 2 subjunctive
  verb.Ex. He hopes that we arrive on time. The
  subjunctive sentences tend to have two subjects
  and two verbs. However, unless you have wishing,
  doubt, or emotion, you will NOT use the
  subjunctive mood. Other uses of the subjunctive
  will come along later. For now, wishing, doubt,
  and emotion are the top three.

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Subjunctive II. Practice verb formation

• FormationThe formation of the present
  subjunctive is based on the YO of the present
  indicative. Start with the YO (hablo, como vivo,
  tengo) and drop the O. You are now left with
  habl, com, viv, teng.For AR verbs add the
  following endings e, es,e, emos,eis, en. For
  ER/IR verbs add these endings a, as, a, amos,
  ais, anSingle stem change verbs work the same
  in the subjunctive as they did before. Everything
  inside the "shoe" changes. Everything outside
  does not.Therefore, hablo, como vivo, tengo in
  the indicative become hable, coma, viva and tenga
  in the subjunctive.

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Subjunctive Perceptions and Untangibles

• Spanish has two "moods". One is the indicative
  and the other is the subjunctive. The INDICATIVE
  mood INDICATES FACTS (My name is Miguel It is
  sunny today Last night I played soccer). The
  SUBJUNCTIVE reflects SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS and
  UNTANGIBLES.Specifically, the subjunctive mood
  is used for three traditional reasonsWishing
  DoubtEmotionsThe Fourth reason for using a
  subjunctive is when one describes things that do
  not exist.

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Subjunctive the use of QUE

• Look at the first half of the sentence and when
  you get to the word "that" (or QUE in Spanish),
  count how many items you have in your possession.
  If the answer is 0, use the subjunctive in the
  second half of the sentence. For example, in the
  sentence "I am looking for a job that pays well"
  you do not have the job yet. In essence, it does
  not exist. Therefore, "pays well" would be in the
  subjunctive. On the other hand, the sentence " I
  have a job that pays well" tells us that you
  already have the job. Therefore, it would take
  the indicative.

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Subjunctive the use of QUE

• Since things that do not exist comprise a fair
  number of subjunctive triggers, it is very
  important for students to be familiar with the
  vocabulary associated with this concept, so have
  your dictionary handy. Remember that the
  subjunctive is not real. Rather, it only reflects
  what the subject is wishing, doubting, feeling,
  or envisioning (p.s. that's why we call it
  subjective).

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Subjunctive the use of QUE

• More subjunctive quick facts The "trigger"
  (wishing, doubt, emotion, things that do not
  exist) is in the indicative and the subjunctive
  traditionally falls in the latter part of the
  sentence. Furthermore, frequently there are two
  subjects, for example, WE do not know ANYONE who
  speaks English THEY are looking for a CAR that
  is red The TEACHER wants a BOOK that is
  interesting. The indicative part is real. Since
  the listener never knows the outcome of the
  subjunctive part, it is immeasurable, and
  therefore subjunctive.