The Grammar Page

Grammar Basics

Verbs

Vocabulary

The Practice Zone

The Present Subjunctive

The Subjunctive 3-part formula in detail

The Subjunctive Weirdo: When to use the Subjunctive

Other constructions where we need to use the Subjunctive

When NOT to use the Subjunctive

Colby: Present Subjunctive Practice

Although I expect that you are doing all of the Grammar Notes and textbook readings as well as the online activities and homework, I cannot stress enough the importance of doing so now. The Subjunctive is a form that does not have a simple counterpart in English. The only way to become comfortable with the Subjunctive is to practice.

Spanish 101A

Spanish 101B

drlemon.com

FAQs & About drlemon©®

Email me!

Creative Commons License
drlemon.com by Deborah R. Lemon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.drlemon.com.

Notice the Present Subjunctive conjugations endings are the opposite from the endings we learned from the Present Tense:

AR VERBS

IR/ER VERBS

Yo

e a

es as

Él, ella, usted

e a

Nosotros

emos amos

Ellos, ellas, ustedes

en an

In the past we have removed the last two letters of an infinitive to get to the root or stem of the verb. Then we added the conjugation endings. But now we have a new way to form the root:

We conjugate in the Present Subjunctive by taking the first person singular "Yo " form of a verb (we'll use Hablar).

    1) Hablar --->Hablo
    2) Drop the "o"
    3) --->Habl-
    4) Add the opposite ending: `e'
    (in other words, an ending we would expect to see on an Ir or Er verb)
    5) --->Hable
Notice that "Hable" (Subjunctive) has no accent mark. This differentiates it from the accented Preterite Past tense yo form of "hablé " (I spoke)

If the "Yo" form is irregular, the subjunctive form will follow the irregular pattern of the Yo form:

    1) Traer ----> Yo traigo
    2) Drop the "o" ---> Traig-
    3) Add the opposite ending `a'
    4) Traiga
Other "yo" irregulars:
Caer (Caigo) Decir (digo) Hacer (Hago) Oír (Oigo) Poner (Pongo) Salir (Salgo) Venir (Vengo)

In addition, if there is a stem change in the Present Tense, there will be a stem change in all of the conjugations in the Subjunctive form with the exception of the Nosotros form of -Ar and -Er verbs.

Only -Ir verbs continue to stem-change in all forms of the Present Subjunctive and they follow the same stem-changes as in the Preterite.

Infinitive (Verb)

Present tense Yo

Subjunctive Yo form

Subjunctive Nosotros form

Pedir Pido Pida Pidamos
Pensar Pienso Piense Pensemos
Dormir Duermo Duerma Durmamos
Atender Atiendo Atienda Atendamos
Hervir Hiervo Hierva Hirvamos
Entender Entiendo Entienda Entendamos
Poder Puedo Pueda Podamos
Freír Frío Fría Fríamos

There are six Spanish verbs with irregular present tense subjunctive forms. With Estar, Ser and Dar, drop both the "O" and the "Y":

Verbo

Yo form

Subjunctive

Estar Estoy Esté
Dar Doy
Ir (very irregular) Voy Vaya
Saber Sepa
Haber He Haya
Ser Soy Sea

There is a 3 part formula for using the Subjunctive. Each one of these three components MUST be in place.

1

2

3

Subject #1 (indicative verb)

(Select one of the WEIRDO categories)

Que

This is the conjunction necessary to introduce the subjunctive clause

Subject #2 + verb in the subjunctive

(the person or thing in our WEIRDO world)