Subjunctive Present form (presente del subjuntivo)

The student that manage to use fluently subjunctive verb mode in Spanish, can say with confidence that his/her Spanish is great 🙂 for those of you who are not there yet, don’t lose hope, think of this as a step to master your knowledge of Spanish.

It may take long time but I think it is worth learning and practicing subjunctive as it is very common to hear it everyday in our language.

All said, you will notice that most times Spanish speakers will not tell you that there is a mistake when you use ‘presente del indicativo’ instead of subjunctive, as it is considered quite difficult to explain (no direct translation in English) or when you hear other Spanish speakers whose first language is foreign, then many times they might forget to use it or will struggle even with a good level of Spanish.

What is the Spanish Subjunctive?

The time verb used in subjunctive is not as accurate as it is in the indicative present tense.

In the subjunctive present tense we can see that the context it might refer to a situation in the present or in the future.

Presente	Tal vez el jefe esté en la oficina	The boss might be at the office
Futuro	Tal vez venga el jefe a la reunión	The boss might come to the meeting

In subjunctive past tense, it could indicate something occurring in the past, present or future.

Pasado	Espero que la tarta no se haya quemado	I hope the cake didn’t burn
Presente	Ojalá estuviese aquí ahora	I wish you were here now
Futuro	Ojalá pueda salir mañana	Hopefully I can go out tomorrow

Therefore, the meaning of the sentence is given by the context instead of the verb form being used.

The subjunctive form will usually be used in subordinate sentences, as concept of ‘prior to’, ‘simultaneously’, or ‘afterwards’, in relation with the action of the main verb.

Examples:

.Me dijeron que me marchara – They told me to leave (the action ‘to leave’ is after the subject was ‘told’)

.Me gustaría que estuvieras aquí ahora – I wish you were here now (the action of both verbs occurs at the same time)

.Siento que te hayan despedido – I’m sorry you were fired (the action ‘to be fired’ is in the past, prior to the action of ‘being sorry’)

Another use of subjunctive is for conditional sentences. When the past perfect (pluscuamperfecto) is used, it indicates irreality, where as the imperfect tense (pretérito imperfecto) may express possibility.

Irreality: Si hubieras venido, te habría invitado a una cerveza – If you had come, I would have bought you a beer

Possiblity: Si vinieses, te invitaría a una cerveza – If you came, I would buy you a beer

Check the conjugation page for more tense forms.