FHUHS Spanish

Formation of the Present Subjunctive

There are three simple steps to forming the present subjunctive:

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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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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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There are two primary verbs in Spanish which are translated as “to be” in English. They each have very specific uses, and the use of one or another will have a significant impact on meaning. Using the wrong verb can render your sentence utterly meaningless, or may result in an unintended mistatement.

Many textbooks create long lists of cases in which one uses ser or estar. The reality is that the difference can be essentially reduced to the difference between a description of the inherent characteristic of an object, vs. the state or condition of being of that object. The detailed breakdowns on usage can all ultimately be reduced to the above difference. The following breakdown is brief, but relatively complete:

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Reflexive Verbs (Los verbos reflexivos)

A verb is considered to be reflexive when the doer of the action is also the receiver of the action. For example, if you are combing your hair, you are the person doing the combing as well as the person being combed.

• Me peino, I comb (myself)
• Te peinas, You comb (yourself)

• Nos peinamos, We comb (ourselves)

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Gustar is very often presented to Spanish students with the meaning “to like.” This even more frequently results in the misuse of gustar.

Quite simply, gustar does not mean “to like.” It means to be pleasing to.

The following will give a little background on the use of gustar

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Saber & Conocer in the Preterite vs. Imperfect

While conocer(to be familiar with; to know a person) is completely regular in both the preterite and the imperfect, saber (to know a fact; to know how to do something) is quite irregular in the preterite:

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Conjugation of regular verbs in the conditional indicative

The conditional indicative (condicional de indicativo) form developed from the joining of the infinitive of the verb in question and the imperfect indicative suffixes of the verb ‘haber.’:

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Conjugation of regular verbs in the future indicative

The true future indicative (futuro de indicativo) form developed from the joining of the infinitive of the verb in question and the present indicative of the verb ‘haber.’:

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Preterite vs. Imperfect in Spanish

There are two past tenses in Spanish: the preterite (pretérito), and the imperfect (imperfecto). While they are both used to express or discuss actions in the past, they are not interchangeable. The distinction between their usage is generally quite clear with only the occasional case where the distinction is subtle.

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