What´s the difference between conditional and subjunctive?
I´m just not getting it. What´s the difference between, for example, diríamos and digamos?
11 Answers
Lesson 3.1, the subjunctive sentence has 3 different requirements.
- There must be 2 different subjects each within an independent and dependent clause.
- A relative pronoun (que, quien or como) must link the two clauses.
- There must be two different verbs, one in the indicative and the other in the subjunctive.
An example of the subjunctive sentence form used in the lesson is "Quiero un hombre quien sea rico," or "I want a man who is rich." This sentence contains 1. two different subjects, 2. a relative pronoun (quien), and 3. two different verbs, one in the indicative and the other in the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive mood must also express some subjective sense as in emotions, wishes, hopes, or desires.
The conditional mood is the form best translated in English with the word "would," as in "I would like to go to the movies but I have homework tonite," or "Me gustaría ir al cine, pero tengo la tarea esta noche." Notice that there is no relative pronoun in this sentence, and it expresses the conditional in the sense that IF I didn't have homework things would have been different.
At the risk of oversimplfying, the conditional is a declaration of what would be done in a hypothetical situation that is unreal or contrary to fact. The subjunctive is used for things you cannot declare, such as an unreal or contrary to fact situation.
"Oh that someone would get this guy off of me!"
That is a wish that someone would do something, not a declaration that someone would do something, so it uses the subjunctive.
"If I had been there, I would have tossed the guy out of the room."
would have the past perfect subjunctive in the first clause and the conditional perfect in the second.
Hi Webdunce,
I think that Lorenzo has nailed it as far as how "would" in the subjunctive is generally used to express a wish or desire:
"Oh (I wish) that someone would get this guy off of me!"
Whereas in the conditional, "would" is often used to express/declare what one would actually do (often in the future).
If this still seems confusing, try having a look at this article on the conditional:
HI wedunce, actually I don't really understand your question.
Why don't you post some sentences where you could not the two ideas clearly?
I can´t think of any examples. I just know I can never figure out if I should use conditional or subjunctive. Are the two not commonly confused? I would have thought this was a common problem.
These aren´t great examples, but...
You said earlier: ¡Pero que alguien me quite a este tío de encima!
I took this to mean something like "Oh that someone would get this guy off of me!" And you used quite, which is subjunctive.
But, then I have seen "diríamos" for "we would say." But that is conditional.
I think it is the "would" that is messing me up. Both can be translated into English as "would {whatever}."
3. There must be two different verbs, one in the indicative and the other in the subjunctive.
One thing though, it doesn´t make sense to say that the subjunctive is required in sentences that contain a subjunctive verb. I think this part needs to be re-written.
Okay, here´s another example...
I want to say "I think it should be blue" as in "I think it is supposed to be blue" (I would say this, for instance, if the instructions said to paint it blue, but you painted it orange).
Should I say:
"Creo que deba ser azul."
"Creo que debería ser azul."
"Creo que sería azul."
"Creo que sea azul."
Or some other way.
You are declaring what you think, so my guess would be
Creo que debería ser azul.
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