FHUHS Spanish

The Subjunctive Mode in Noun Clauses

The Subjunctive mode is used in noun clauses whenever the primary clause expresses doubt, emotion, or volition (will).

What is a noun clause?

A noun clause is a sentence fragment containing at least a subject and a verb which, when taken together, function as a noun, frequently as the direct object of the verb in the primary clause. In the following sentence:

I want a new car.

the direct object is “a new car.” It’s what “I want…”

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The Subjunctive Mode

All of the uncertainty surrounding the Subjunctive Mode is entirely unnecessary. Most of the difficulty presented by the subjunctive has to do with very poor presentation on the part of the textbooks and poor contextualization. Generations of teachers have used textbooks which delay the presentation of the subjunctive until the second or third year. Learners have by that point learned about the present tense, the imperfect tense, the preterite tense, the future tense, the conditional tense, the perfect tenses… And then suddenly the Subjunctive is introduced. It’s only natural for the learner to say to themselves, “Well, here we go with another tense.” At that point the battle is lost. I am hopeful that what follows and the links at the end of this post will help you see how simple the subjunctive actually is.

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Formation of the Imperfect Subjunctive

There are two forms of the imperfect subjunctive: the -ra forms and the -se forms. There are more or less interchangeable so you really only need to learn to generate the -ra forms and recognize the -se forms. Native speakers seem to use both according to what sounds best to their ear in the sentence in question.

There are no irregular forms of the imperfect subjunctive—as long as you know the 3rd person plural of the preterite indicative of the verb you want to use, the formation is perfectly regular. Just follow these steps:

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Formation of the Present Subjunctive

There are three simple steps to forming the present subjunctive:

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Subjunctive with Adverbial Clauses

An adverbial clause is one in which the subordinate clause, introduced by a conjunction, modifies or expands upon the meaning of the primary clause. The subjunctive will be used if the primary clause indicates possible future action, and after some conjunctions which by their nature, imply doubt.

Both of the following examples are uses of the subjunctive with adverbial clauses, in these particular cases, with the conjunction ‘cuando’.

Tendré muchos hijos cuando me case.
(Cuando me case, tendré muchos hijos.)

Tendré un garaje cuando tenga una casa propia.
(Cuando tenga una casa propia, tendré un garaje.)

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