Subjunctive question !
Cuando María llegue a casa, su marido no habrá vuelto del supermercado todavía.
Cuando Estela y Juan se casaron, habían sido novios por cinco años.
I thought "cuando" calls for subjunctive. So howcome on the second sentence the verb casar is not subjunctive?
5 Answers
Everyone else seems to have pretty much covered it, but I thought I'd just add one thing. Indeterminacy is a subjunctive 'trigger', and the first situation requires the subjunctive because the time at which she gets home is undetermined. The second situation calls for the indicative because the time at which they got married is determined. It happened at a specific, determined time. I find it helpful to think of certain things, like indeterminacy, as triggering the subjunctive, rather than memorizing something like "after cuando when talking about the future. Not after cuando when talking about the past," for a hundred different words like cuando.
Because that's the preterite tense so you are talking about something that has already happened - it's already an established fact ![]()
When E & J got married ![]()
Because it is a past action that is finished. There is no way the outcome of this action can be in question.
cuando is followed by the subjunctive when it refers to a future action
Voy a hacerlo cuando llegue a casa.
I'm going to do it when I get home. (when I get home-future action)
Cuando María llegue a casa, su marido no habrá vuelto del supermercado todavía.
When María gets home, her husband will not have returned from the supermarket yet.
When María gets home...future action.
Cuando Estela y Juan se casen
Cuando Estela y Juan se casaban
Cuando Estela y Juan se casan...
and more ..., cuando not call for subjunctive.