Do I use the subjunctive in the sentence "When Miguel calls me, I will speak to him."
"When Miguel calls me, I will speak to him" would you say "Cuando Miguel me llama, le diré" or would you say, "Cuando Miguel me llama, le diga."
5 Answers
In Spanish we use the present simple (subjuntivo) here, as unlike in English, we do so most of the time (very confusing for my students, as in English this does not happen
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So this would be:
"Cuando Miguel me llame, hablaré/hablo con él"
You were right in your assumption, the first part needs subjunctive, as this is certainly a case you cannt declare, as you don't know if this is going to happen or not.
Cúando me llamara miguel, le hablaría.
I have no idea if he is going to call, but if he does....
I'm certainly no expert on subjunctive, but I believe it is only used in subordinate clauses. In English, we sometimes put the subordinate clause before the main clause, as in your example. Since "I will speak to him" is the main clause, you wouldn't use subjunctive. In English, this is clearly a future tense. In Spanish, you would probably use the present, unless you're pondering whether you'll actually talk to Miguel.
Good luck. Calvo
This question throws me through a loop, I would use the present tense or a form of voy a + infinitive for decir, the verb llamar is where I would be thinking to use the future tense, because the speaker knows whether or not he is going to answer, only if he were answering a question would I think he need worry about the verb decir.
Although I suppose you could be talking about the expected ability to answer the phone, in which case because something might stop you from answering (you didn't hear the phone) which causes this to use the future.
LaGringa, check out these two reference articles from SpanishDict:
In your case you should use the future tense. However to say "I will speak to him" you should use "le hablaré". Decir has the meaning closer to "to say, tell"*, whereas Hablar is "to talk, speak".
