Using the subjectivive in certain clauses
I am trying to wrap my mind around "the rules" for using the subjunctive clause and am drawing a blank as to why 'decir' would be in the subjunctive in sentances like this one:
Tienes razón, hoy día no hay ningún medio de comunicación que diga toda la verdad de forma independiente.
1 Answer
In this case, the subjunctive is used because (and this is where I get the vocab wrong) the secondary clause or some such thing is being denied. It's saying "... there is not any medium of communication which tells the whole truth..." Because it denies the existence of such a medium, the subjunctive must be used for the verb 'to tell'. There is no medium to do the telling, so no telling is going on, so the telling doesn't really happen in the indicative. I believe the rule is that if the dependent clause is negated by the independent clause the dependent clause uses the subjunctive, but that's just the way I remember it from a few years ago; to know if a sentence required the subjunctive, I'd probably have to look at it. I hope this helps. I realize this is a bit jumbled, though, so if you still don't get it, let me know. Meanwhile, I'll look up what the real name of the 'secondary clause' is.
Update: The dependent clause. That's what it's called. 
Also, by the way, I recommend this site to everyone who asks about the subjunctive. I think it's some professor's lecture notes or some such thing, but it's very well done and and has comprehensive explanations of a lot of Spanish concepts that just make sense to me. The link is to the page on the subjunctive.
