Subjunctive 1

Subjunctive Mood
Before learning the subjunctive mood, it is important to understand the difference between a tense and a mood. A tense, like present indicative or future, tells when something happens. A mood on the other hand, is a reflection of the type of events that are going on, or a reflection of the situation. By now you have probably already learned present indicative. The “present” is the tense, or when the events happens, whereas the “indicative” is the mood. In Spanish there are two main moods to learn, Indicative and Subjunctive.

Indicative mood tends to be more objective and certain.

Yo no tengo amigos. I have no friends.
Nosotros fuimos a la playa.We went to the beach
Ellos son fuertes. They are strong
Subjunctive tends to be more subjective or possible, but not certain.

Es triste que no tenga amigos. It is sad that I don’t have friends.
Me alegré que fuéramos a la playa. I was happy that we went to the beach.
Es posible que ellos sean fuertes.It is possible that they are strong.

A great acronym to help remember when to use subjunctive is WEDDING. When any verbs under the WEDDING categories are “indicated”, or are used in the indicative mood, and followed by the word “que”, the following verb in the sentence will be in the subjunctive mood. Just remember that the tenses need to match. Always use a past tense with another past tense (moods can be different), and present with a present. The exception is future subjunctive, in which you would just use a present subjunctive form. Have a look at the WEDDING acronym below.

Some verbs that cause subjunctive mood
Wishes, Wants, Wequests	querer – to want, desire aconsejar – to advise mandar – to order, command prohibir – to prohibit, forbid pedir – to ask for something rogar – to beg decir – to tell oponerse a – to be against tolerar – to tolerate	desear – to desire insistir en – to insist suplicar – to implore, to beg exigir – to demand preferir – to prefer permitir – to permit sugerir – to suggest recomendar – to recommend
Emotions	esperar – to hope tener miedo – to be afraid alegrarse de – to be happy about something	sorprenderse de – to be surprised temer – to fear, to be afraid Ojalá – I hope that, I hope so
Doubt	dudar – to doubt no pensar – to not believe (doubt) no creer – to not believe (doubt)	¿pensar? – Do you think? (implies doubt) ¿creer? – Do you think? (implies doubt)
Denial	negar – to deny rechazar – to refuse	desdecirse – to recant prohibir – to prohibit
Impersonal Expressions	Es dudoso – it´s doubtful Es importante – it is important Es lástima – it’s a shame Es mejor – it’s better Más vale – better Es triste– it is sad Importa – it’s important Es bueno – it’s good Es malo – it’s bad Es raro – it’s strange Es justo – it’s fair Es injusto – it’s unfair	No es obvio – it’s not obvious Es escandaloso – it’s scandalous Es menester – it’s necessary Es necesario – it’s necessary  Es preciso – it’s necessary Es posible – it’s possible Es imposible – it’s imposible Es probable – it’s probable Es indispensable – it’s indispensable Vale la pena – it’s worthwhile Es absurdo – it’s absurd Es ridículo – it’s ridiculous Es sorprendente – it’s surprising
Need	necesitar – to need	requerir – to require, need
Guilt, Grief	sentir – to be sorry	ponerse triste – to get sad

Remember! – All of the WEDDING verbs are used in the indicative mood and followed by the word “que”. Only then would you follow with a verb in the subjunctive mood.

In order to conjugate present subjunctive, the easiest way is to remember the “yo” form of present indicative, lose the “o”, and replace it with a new ending. A little rhyme to remember is – think “yo”, drop the “o”, opposite ending. “-AR” verbs get “e” endings and “-ER” and “-IR” verbs get “a” endings.

-AR Verb Endings in Subjunctive
Singular		Plural
Yo	-e	Nosotros	-emos
Tú	-es	Vosotros	-éis
El Ella Usted	-e	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	-en

Hablar
Singular		Plural
Yo	hable	Nosotros	hablemos
Tú	hables	Vosotros	habléis
El Ella Usted	hable	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	hablen

-ER and -IR Verb Endings in Subjunctive
Singular		Plural
Yo	-a	Nosotros	-amos
Tú	-as	Vosotros	-áis
El Ella Usted	-a	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	-an

Poner
Singular		Plural
Yo	ponga	Nosotros	pongamos
Tú	pongas	Vosotros	pongáis
El Ella Usted	ponga	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	pongan

There are a few irregularities in present subjunctive to be aware of:
1. verbs that end in -car, -gar, or -zar, will get a spelling change just like they do in the preterit indicative tense.

buscar – busque
pagar – pague
cazar cace
2. “-AR” and “-ER” stem changing verbs from present indicative have the same changes in present subjunctive. The nosotros form does not get a stem change.

cerrar – cierre, cierres, cierre, cerremos, cierren3. “-IR” stem changers keep the stem change in all forms.

pedir – pida, pidas, pida, pidamos, pidais,pidan4. The following verbs have irregular forms when conjugated in the present subjunctive:

dar – dé, des, dé, demos, deis, den
estar – esté, estés, esté, estemos, estéis, estén
haber – haya, hayas, haya, hayamos, hayáis, hayan
ir – vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayáis, vayan
saber – sepa, sepas, sepa, sepamos, sepáis, sepan
ser – sea, seas, sea, seamos, seáis, sean

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In order to conjugate verbs in the imperfect subjunctive, or past subjunctive, you need to be comfortable with the preterit indicative first. Start with the third person plural, the “ellos, ellas, ustedes” form, lose the last two letters, “-on”, and replace them with the new endings. There is only one set of endings for all verbs.

Imperfect Subjunctive Endings
Singular		Plural
Yo	-a	Nosotros	´-amos
Tú	-as	Vosotros	-ais
El Ella Usted	-a	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	-an

Poner – Imperfect Subjunctive
Singular		Plural
Yo	pusiera	Nosotros	pusiéramos
Tú	pusieras	Vosotros	pusierais
El Ella Usted	pusiera	Ellos Ellas Ustedes	pusieran

Only the “nosotros” form gets an accent mark in the imperfect subjunctive.

Practice Activities:

Present Subjunctive – Wedding Verbs (all)

Present Subjunctive – Impersonal Expressions 

Imperfect Subjunctive – Wedding Verbs

Imperfect subjunctive – Wedding Verbs 2

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