Are there two different forms of subjunctive preterite?
I was just looking up verb congugations and I realized that spanishdict has 2 lists of subjunctive preterite tenses in its full congugation of several verbs. Is this correct? Is there a different meaning between the two subjunctive preterites or is it just for different dialects? Thanks for the help.
4 Answers
The two forms have the same meaning, but the ...ese... form isn't used any more. It's kind of like the English "thee" and "thou". Everyone understands it, but no one uses it. You'll see it in ancient writing, like the Bible.
Hold on, hold on! The -se forms are used every day in Spain, along with the -re ones, and we are not tales from the Bible. We are talking about a form used dozens of times every day by more than 40 million people. I wouldn't describe that as "no one".
When the imperfect subjunctive is used for typical subjunctive uses, either form can be used alike, although the -re form is far more popular in Latin America (and apparently, not even in use in Calvo Viejo's country). The advantage of the -re form is that it also have other uses that the -se form doesn't.
The -se form was the original Latin subjunctive tense, while the -re form was originally an indicative tense. In time, the -re form began to expand its uses, and eventually it could also be used instead of the original imperfect subjunctive forms. That's why -re has more uses than -se.
In Spain we like to keep both to break the monotony of so many re re re re in the same paragraph, so we alternate sometimes as we see fit.
- ...porque cualquiera que fuese la verdad, de ningún modo podía remediarse (Isabel Allende, Chilean writer)
- ...como si la poética de su autor no se hubiese perfeccionado todavía con el uso. (García Márquez, Colombian writer)
- ...y confiase que el Jordán pasará por su boca (Borges, Argentinian writer)
Maybe this -se form has died recently, and I didn't realized.
Please ignore my answer
yes in mexico they use them too... but maybe some places dont....
i was talking with my bf about the.... Espero que tu verano fuera tan divertido como el mío
and he said that he would have said
Espero que tu verano fuese tan divertido como el mío
My apologies, Lazarus!
Pregunté a un amigo, nativo de Colombia, y él me dijo que ya no se usa la forma -se. Lo creí. Seguro que tiene mucho más conocimiento que mí amigo en este asunto.
Gracias por aclara la pregunta.
Con esto Calvo regresa a su modo de observar sin contestar preguntas
