Subjunctive Spanish

The Spanish subjunctive. It’s the grammar rule that makes a lot of intermediate Spanish learners throw up their hands and give up. I know, because I’ve been there, 2…or 3…or 7 times. But it doesn’t have to be that way! The subjunctive tense is so hard for native English speakers not only because it doesn’t really exist in English (at least it’s not nearly as common), but because it reflects the emotion of whatever message a speaker is trying to convey.

That being said, it’s not the subjunctive endings that are so hard, it’s figuring out when to use them. There are words and phrases that point out when we should use subjunctive endings, but then throw a “not” in there and everything changes!

After all that, I promise the subjunctive Spanish isn’t too too bad. It’s takes a lot of practice and frustration and consistent mistakes, but I promise you’ll get it, as long as you stick to it.

Subjunctive vs indicative

First off, let’s jump into the difference between the subjunctive vs indicative. The indicative is the normal, everyday tenses that we use - basically everything that’s not the subjunctive. It’s straightforward. So, the indicative Spanish tenses are the present, past, future…literally everything but the subjunctive. The indicative is straightforward: no emotion, no doubt. Just a statement.

Then there’s the question of when to use the subjunctive in Spanish. This is when things get tricky. It would be easy if it were just a case of seeing an emotion word, but unfortunately, it’s not. So subjunctive Spanish. We use this tense whenever a sentence has a verb that expresses:

• Advice/suggestions
• Orders/demands/requests
• Desire/hope
• Doubts/uncertainties
• Emotions
• Anytime the word “ojalá” is used

Which seems like a lot, I know. But don’t worry. Breathe. I don’t feel like it’s completely necessary to memorize all that. The subjunctive vs indicative can be explained in much simpler terms, and I feel like a lot of Spanish learners spend too much time and energy forcing information that isn’t really required, which makes this whole thing a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

The subjunctive Spanish  - when to use it

I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to blow your mind! Instead of treating the subjunctive Spanish like a rule book, let’s treat it like part of a language. So, first off, the indicative. The indicative expresses certainty. Point blank. Cold, emotionless, certain statements. For example:

Salimos tarde
(We left late)

Tienes tiempo libre
(You have free time)

These statements use the indicative because they’re just simple statements. They’re saying something that happened or is currently happening just as a stated fact.

Now, the first sign that you may need to use the subjunctive is seeing the word que used in the middle of the sentence. This is the trigger word for the subjunctive. It’s basically the sign that says “hey, this sentence may require a subjunctive verb tense, so keep an eye out”. To make the verb tenses in those earlier tenses subjunctive, let’s add some emotion.

Es probable que salgamos tarde
(It’s likely we’ll leave late)

Es bueno que tengas tiempo libre
(It’s good that you have free time)

So there ya have it. You see the word que used above, and the subjunctive of the following verb used (ie. salgamos and tengas). Both of those sentences had either an indefinite outcome or an emotion. They weren’t just straight-forward statements. Somebody had opinions.

That being said, when you think about the subjunctive, I want you to think about:

1. If the word que is present, and
2. If the sentence has feeling

The subjunctive Spanish - when not to use it

Okay, so once you’ve got that down, it’s time to pay attention to whether or not the word que is triggering the subjunctive or not. Like I said before, que should give you the message of “pay attention - this might need the subjunctive!”. So here’s an example of when you don’t use the subjunctive Spanish:

Estoy segura que está bien
(I’m sure that it’s okay)

Julia piensa que puede usar el cuarto
(Julie thinks that she can use the room)

These statements use the indicative, NOT the subjunctive. Although they both have the trigger que notice that they’re expressing certainties. There is no question or emotion about them - they are what they are.

Unless, of course, you tack a “no” on them. Then the story changes:

No estoy segura que esté bien
(I’m not sure that it’s okay)

Julia no piensa que pueda usar el cuarto
(Julia doesn’t think that she can use the room)

You stick that negative on there, and we’re right back to the subjunctive!

Present subjunctive

Fortunately, figuring out which cases to use the present subjunctive is the hard part; once you’ve got that down, the subjunctive conjugation is easy, especially compared to the past tense. If you’re comfortable with the present tenses (which you should be if you’re reading up on present subjunctive Spanish), Spanish subjunctive conjugation is easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Step 1: take the regular ‘yo’ form of the verb and chop the o off. When you do that, you’ve got your base for subjunctive Spanish conjugation:

Hablar > hablo > habl
Vivir > vivo > viv
Salir > salgo > salg
Costar > cuesto > cuest

As you can see, even if the present indicative conjugation (remember: the indicative is anything that is not the subjunctive) is irregular, you’ll treat it has regular so long as they’re not irregular in the subjunctive (don’t worry, I’m not going there just yet).

So. We have our base. What do we do with it? Pretty much the straight opposite of the regular present tense.

See what I mean? As long as you have the regular present tense conjugations in your head, this should be no problem: same pattern, slightly different letters. For example:

Subjunctive irregulars

Okay, now let’s talk about subjunctive irregulars. Fortunately, there are only a small handful of Spanish subjunctive irregulars, so it’s not too too hard to get these down, either. There are only 6 irregular verbs:

Dar
Estar
Ser
Haber
Ir
Saber

And, fortunately, most of them are irregular across the board, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to you.

The Subjunctive Spanish

So there ya have it. Yeah, it’ll take a little bit of getting used to, but honestly, once you get comfortable deciding when to use the indicative and when to use the subjunctive, the rest of it is fairly easy. Subjunctive Spanish conjugations aren’t totally unlike your run-of-the-mill present conjugations, so it’s an easy pill to swallow.

The biggest difference is that we don’t really have a whole lot to compare the subjunctive Spanish to in English. We do use the subjunctive tense, if we’re speaking correctly, but most of us don’t in everyday life, and a lot of us aren’t even aware of it.

For example: “I wish I were a millionaire”.

See? Same idea - it would need a subjunctive conjugation in Spanish, too! But when we native English speakers walk around saying “I wish I was a millionaire”, nobody’s the wiser. And hey, the only time this hurts us is when we’re trying to learn Spanish!