¿Te sirve que nos veamos a las once?

Question

Please explain the use of the subjunctive mood in the following sentence that my friend sent to me. "

I received this message as a text when we could not meet at our regular hour. It seems a straight forward question so I don't understand the use of the subjuntive for the verb ver, i.e. veamos

Gracias a todos. Ahora entiendo perfectamente. Ojala que yo pueda recordarlo. - RDS, Jan 28, 2010

Answer 1

HI rd, welcome to the forum

quiero que, te sirve que, ojalá ....there are many words or expressions that trigger the subjuntive.

Answer 2

It's not exactly a question of (not) being straightforward. When your friend posed the question, it referred to a possible, future event. If, for example, you had already agreed on a meeting at 11, one might say "Nos veremos a las once." (simple future indicative). However, in you sentence, it's no more than a tentative suggestion. The same considerations would apply to the English version. {"Would it serve you (be convenient) if we were to meet at 11?" In English there are other (perhaps more colloquial) ways to ask the same thing that either do not involve the subjunctive or (because of the limited inflection of English verbs) are not obviously subjunctive. Nonetheless, it is quite easy to construct a similar question in English that quite properly employs the subjunctive.

Answer 3

As I understand it, the subjunctive is needed when talking about something which might happen, i.e. is not definite. And somehow, once a sentence reaches "que" more often than not, a verb in the subjunctive follows.

In my translation 'Would it suit you if we were to meet at eleven", English uses the subjunctive as well.