Spanish Grammar

Pronunciation & Accents
Gender & Def./Indef. Articles Subject Pronouns
The Verb Ser
Plural Nouns & Adjectives
The Calendar
Cardinal & Ordinal Numbers
Telling Time

Hay
Verbs - The Present Tense
The Verb Ir
The Verb Tener
The Verb Estar
Ser vs. Estar
Possessive Adjectives
Possessive Pronouns

Stem-Changing Verbs
Object Pronouns
The Verb Gustar
The Weather

Reflexive Verbs
Por vs. Para
Demonstratives
The Verb Acabar de
The Verb Volver a
The Past Tense - Pretérito Prepositions
Informal Commands

The Past Tense - Imperfecto
Preterit vs. Imperfect
Past Participles
Present Perfect Tense
Past Perfect Tense
The Subjunctive
Formal Commands
The Future Tense
The Conditional Tense

The Subjunctive Mood

Learn Spanish: Intro to the Spanish Subjunctive Mood

This learn Spanish grammar lesson is the beginning lesson on the subjunctive mood in Spanish, one of the most difficult areas of Spanish grammar for student to grasp. The subjunctive mood in Spanish is used to express wishes or desires, requests or suggestions or intentions, obligations and necessity, possiblities or uncertainties, unrealized or hypothetical events, situations or entities, and to express the personal reactions of the speaker or the subject of a sentance to an actual event or situation.

The concept of the Spanish Subjunctive

In Spanish there are two moods: the indicative and the subjunctive.

The Indicative mood is an objective mood for describing facts, or stating what is considered to be certain. It is the mood of what is.

The Subjunctive mood, however, is a subjective mood for expressing feelings, emotions, wishes, desires, uncertainty or doubt and more reactions to the actions of others. It is the mood of what could or may be.

Compare:

In Spanish, the subjunctive is frequently used. In contrast, it is rarely used in English.

Structure of the Subjunctive

Present tense of Subjunctive for Regular Verbs:

Conjugating Present Tense Regular Verbs

Take the Yo form of the present indicative verb and drop the O, then add the following endings based upon the subject pronoun:

Ar verbs: e, es, e, emos, éis, en

Er/Ir verbs: a, as, a, amos, aís, an

*** This pattern applies to all regular and irregular yo forms in the present indicative.

To preserve sound there are some orthographical changes in verbs that end in:

-car, -gar or -zar

Present subjunctive: Stem changing verbs

Stem changing ar and er verbs have the same stem-changes in the present subjunctive as they do in the present indicative except for nosotros and vosotros.

More on the Subjunctive coming soon! Sorry, but there's A LOT more to learn!!! :)