tú commands, usted commands, nosotros commands, vosotros commands, and the ustedes commands
Thesubjunctivereflects hypothetical situations, emotions, uncertainty, or unreality
used to say something is imagined, desired, hopeful, or doubtful
Tenses= present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, and perfect tenses
Take a look at these different moods expressed in English:
He
washes the
dishes.
-> this is concrete and definite=indicative
Wash the dishes!
-> this is a command=imperative
I hope that he washes the
dishes. -> this expresses your
desire, it is uncertain if it happened=subjunctive
They went to the party.
-> this action occurred, it is concrete= indicative
Go to the
party!
-> this is a command=imperative
I doubt that they went to the
party. -> this expresses doubt, it is uncertain if it happened=subjunctive
Something to remember is that the subjunctive tense requires TWO
CLAUSES in a sentence
You will have a main clause and a subordinate
clause.
The main clause will usually have a signaling phrase
that tells you the
subordinate clause needs to be in the subjunctive mood.
(like: I hope that..., it is important that..., I
doubt that..., he
doesn't believe that..., she is happy that..., etc.)
Look at both of the #3 examples from above: I hope that he washes
the dishes and I doubt that they went to the party. Our
main clause (I hope that... and I doubt that...)
¿Cuándo se usa?
If the first part of the
sentence, the main clause, indicates one of the below uses, then the
second part of the sentence, the subordinate clause will be conjugated
in the subjunctive.There are many
different phrases or words that signal the subjunctive that can be of
help to you when trying to learn this mood.
For now though, here is an acronym for when to use the subjunctive:
W - Wish, Will
E - Emotions
I - Impersonal Expressions
R - Recommendations
D - Doubt, disbelief, denial
O - Ojalá
Thinking of the drawing of my WEIRDO above may help you to remember the six uses of the subjunctive. We will take a look at each of these
uses individually in the future.
La analogía del helado
While I was researching the uses of the
subjunctive, I came across an analogy that explains the
subjunctive in terms of an ice cream cone. This may help you to
wrap your head around the concept of the subjunctive mood as it is a
foreign topic to you.
Your indicative tense is vanilla ice cream. It's plain and simple, straight forward.
Once you start adding your toppings
to that ice cream like sprinkles, chocolate fudge, or cookie dough, the
flavor then changes. These toppings are your human emotions.
With all of these toppings (our
emotions: doubt, denial, desires, hopes, wishes) our vanilla ice cream
has now changed into something new. This new flavor is the
subjunctive. Once the speaker starts to flavor their
statement with their emotions or even hypothetical situations, it is no
longer a plain and simple fact, it now is subjective, or open to interpretation, and therefore we use the subjunctive in those cases.
