Authors: Julie Gutin
The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (23 page)
Subjunctive mood is also retained in a few commonly used phrases, like “if I were you,” “God help us,” and “come what may.” In all of these cases, the statements refer to a potential reality that may or may not occur, and you can see that they’re in the subjunctive mood because the verbs are “were” and not “was,” “help” and not “helps,” and “come”—not “comes.”
Because English verbs aren’t heavily inflected (they don’t have very many conjugated forms and endings), the subjunctive mood is almost invisible. In fact, some grammarians argue that in our language it’s on the way out. Often, a subjunctive mood may be expressed with verbs like “may” or “should” instead of changing the conjugation of the active verb:
She should clean her room.
What may come will come.
The resistance to the subjunctive doesn’t occur in Spanish, however—this mood continues to thrive among speakers of Spanish, and you’ll encounter it quite often.
Present Subjunctive
The present subjunctive in Spanish is known as
el presente de sub-juntivo.
The conjugations in this tense are similar to the present indicative tense, but with a few interesting differences. The most important of these differences is that the endings are inverted. This means –AR verbs have endings beginning with “e” and –ER and –IR verbs have endings that start with “a.” Another difference is that the
yo
and
él/ella/usted
forms are identical.
| –AR Verbs | –ER and –IR Verbs | | |
| –e –emos | –a –amos | | |
| –es –éis | –as –áis | | |
| –e –en | –a –an | | |
To illustrate the conjugations, here are
hablar
(to speak),
vender
(to sell), and
vivir
(to live), conjugated in the present subjunctive:
Hablar
| hable | hablemos |
| hables | habléis |
| hable | hablen |
Vender
| venda | vendamos |
| vendas | vendáis |
| venda | vendan |
Vivir
| viva | vivamos |
| vivas | viváis |
| viva | vivan |
Use the Right Stem
The stem used in the subjunctive is generally identical to the
yo
form of the present indicative. This means that verbs irregular in the
yo
form of the present indicative retain the same stem irregularity in all forms of the present subjunctive.
| Infinitive | Present Indicative (yo form) | Present Subjunctive (yo form) |
| Verbs that end in –uir (i > y) | ||
| atribuir (to attribute) | atribuyo | atribuya |
| concluir (to conclude) | concluyo | concluya |
| huir (to flee) | huyo | huya |
| influir (to influence) | influyo | influya |
| sustituir (to substitute) | sustituyo | sustituya |
| Verbs that end in –ecer or –ucir (c > zc) | ||
| aparecer (to appear) | aparezco | aparezca |
| conducir (to drive) | conduzco | conduzca |
| conocer (to know) | conozco | conozca |
| crecer (to grow) | crezco | crezca |
| establecer (to establish) | establezco | establezca |
| parecer (to seem) | parezco | parezca |
| traducir (to translate) | traduzco | traduzca |
| Verbs that end in –ger or –gir (g > j) | ||
| coger (to grab) | cojo | coja |
| dirigir (to direct) | dirijo | dirija |
| fingir (to pretend) | finjo | finja |
| proteger (to protect) | protejo | proteja |
| Verbs that end in –iar or –uar | ||
| actuar (to act) | actúo | actúe |
| confiar (to confide) | confío | confíe |
| continuar (to continue) | continúo | continúe |
| espiar (to spy) | espío | espíe |
| enviar (to send) | envío | envíe |
| Verbs that gain a “g” in the stem (–ER and –IR verbs) | ||
| caer (to fall) | caigo | caiga |
| decir (to say) | digo | diga |
| hacer (to do) | hago | haga |
| oír (to hear) | oigo | oiga |
| poner (to put) | pongo | ponga |
| salir (to leave) | salgo | salga |
| tener (to have) | tengo | tenga |
| traer (to bring) | traigo | traiga |
| valer (to cost) | valgo | valga |
| venir (to come) | vengo | venga |
| Stem-changing –IR verbs (e > i) | ||
| gemir (to moan) | gimo | gima |
| pedir (to ask) | pido | pida |
| repetir (to repeat) | repito | repita |
| vestir (to dress) | visto | vista |
| Other verbs irregular in the yo form of present indicative | ||
| caber (to fit) | quepo | quepa |
| reír (to laugh) | río | ría |
| ver (to see) | veo | vea |
When conjugating any of these verbs—plus other verbs belonging to the same irregular-verb group—keep in mind that the stem remains the same in all six conjugations and the subjunctive endings are regular. Take two examples, the verb
establecer
(to establish) and
ver
(to see):
| establezca | establezcamos |
| establezcas | establezcáis |
| establezca | establezcan |
| vea | veamos |
| veas | veáis |
| vea | vean |
However, not all verbs follow this rule. There are others that behave even more unpredictably.
ESSENTIAL
It’s easy to get confused with the indicative and subjunctive forms of the present tense. When you’re in doubt, always think back to the infinitive form. If you’ve got an –AR verb, “a” endings are indicative and “e” endings are subjunctive. If you’ve got an –ER or –IR verb, the opposite is true.
Irregular Present-Subjunctive Forms
There are three additional groups of irregular verbs in the present subjunctive. Some verbs also use the
yo
form of the present indicative as its model, but do so in four out of six conjugations—
nosotros
and
vosotros
forms either remain regular or undergo a different stem change.
The second group undergoes a spelling change in accordance with the spelling modification rules (covered in the review of irregular verbs in the present tense). The third group does not share its stem with the
yo
form of the present indicative—stems of the verbs in this group are unique to the present subjunctive conjugations and must be memorized.
Stem-Change Irregularities
Some –AR and –ER verbs that undergo a stem change (e >ie, o >ue) in the
yo
form of the present indicative do have the same change in the present subjunctive, but they do not exhibit the stem change in
nosotros
and
vosotros
forms.
Let’s begin with the verbs with an e > ie stem change. Take a look at the conjugations of
apretar
(to grip) and
defender
(to defend):
| apriete | apretemos |
| aprietes | apretéis |
| apriete | aprieten |
| defienda | defendamos |
| defiendas | defendáis |
| defienda | defiendan |
Other e > ie stem-changing verbs that behave the same way in the present subjunctive include the following:
| Infinitive | Present Indicative (yo form) | Present Subjunctive (yo form) | Present Subjunctive (nosotros form) |
| atravesar (to cross) | atravieso | atraviese | atravesemos |
| cerrar (to close) | cierro | cierre | cerremos |
| encender (to light) | enciendo | encienda | encendamos |
| gobernar (to govern) | gobierno | gobierne | gobernemos |
| pensar (to think) | pienso | piense | pensemos |
| perder (to lose) | pierdo | pierda | perdamos |
| querer (to want) | quiero | quiera | queramos |
| sentar (to sit) | siento | siente | sentemos |
