When do I use the subjunctive in Spanish?

Question

My group is doing a presentation. No one is creating their sentences, so I decide Ill do it all for them. However, my teacher acquires subjunctives.. What is this? Is it when you change the last endings to the opposite. Like when you say "you need" instead of "tu necesitas" it is "tu necessites" ? you change the ar ending to an er ending? or am i completely wrong? Can someone give me examples of sentences with subjunctives please. :(

• "...my teacher requires* subjunctives.." ? - Goldie_Miel Feb 15, 2012
• Hi Krystal, please use correct punctuation for our English learners. I fixed your title. Again, welcome to the forum! - StuartSD Feb 15, 2012

Answer 1

Hehe, yes, you have the idea somewhat (opposite endings). Check out the links below. They'll help you to better understand the subjunctive and when to use it.

Subjunctive vs. Indicative

Present Subjunctive

Answer 2

Have a look here. link text

Answer 3

Well, subjunctive has the same functions in English and in Spanish.(Express desire, possibility, etc.) However, a literal translation isn't helpful in these cases. Do you know what "ojalá" means? This is a very useful word if you want to know that a verb is in subjunctive. For example "Ojalá venga pronto Juan, lo extraño" "I wish Juan would come soon, I miss him." For example, these are all examples of the PRESENT tense in subjunctive

Ojalá yo despierte temprano

Ojalá tú no mueras

Ojalá él/ella venga a mi fiesta

Ojalá nosotros ganemos la lotería

but you don't always have to use ojalá, it's only a kind of tool. The subjunctive is also useful for other cases: "Si tú comieras tus vegetales, yo te daría también caramelos" "If you would eat your vegetables, I would also give you candies" (or something like that, my English may be wrong) ((for IF clauses, you might want to check this: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/condic.htm If you don't know how to conjugate a verb, LOOK AT THIS PAGE: http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/ Search for the verb in it's infinitive form and you will see that next to the definition there's a button that says "CONJUGAR" then you can check what are the subjunctive forms that the verb allows....

Saludos Michoacanos, and Good Luck!!!

Answer 4

Hi Krystal. You might want to check out this article on Subjunctive vs. Indicative. In our Spanish Grammar section, we also have plenty of other articles on the subjunctive. Please take a look at the articles and let us know if there are specific questions we can help with. Welcome to the forum!