For what situations is the subjunctive tense in Spanish used?

Question

For what situations is the subjunctive tense in Spanish used? Example--Vaya a un hospital.

Answer 1

The main whole point of the subjunctive is that it is used for virtual ideas, and not to express your opinions or guesses. Period.

Based on that premise, there are numerous situations where its use is justified. In your example, it is used in polite requests where an implicit (and omitted) "I beg you..." is followed by the subjunctive because "you going to the hospital" is a virtual idea -you are not going to the hospital yet, but I want you to go. The same goes for negative orders, where the action you are demanding to not to be carried is also a virtual one.

There are many other cases where subjunctive is used according to its main function, but you will never understand everything about the subjunctive just by reading theory, and for a comprehensive explanation you'll need many pages (or entire chapters). You have to learn by reading and listening a lot.

Answer 2

acronym : Weirdo. The subjunctive is used for Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal Expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and is used after the words Ojalá

First of all, after "ojalá" you don't have to use subjunctive -you can use indicative as well.

Regarding the WEIRDO rule, all those 6 things can be expressed without subjunctive, so the subjunctive mood does not have the exclusivity on "weirdoness" -subjunctive can be used to express those things, but those things do not have to be expressed in subjunctive necessarily.

• ¡Por favor, ven! (wish)

• Si vienes se cumpliran mis deseos (wish)

• Me ha afectado mucho saber que no te importo (emotion)

• Estoy muy feliz ahora que has llegado (emotion)

• Se come muy bien aquí (impersonal)

• No se aprende si no se estudia (impersonal)

• Yo elegiría ese, si quieres seguir mi recomendación (recommendation)

• Sigue su consejo cuando te dice que no lo compres (recommendation)

• No estoy seguro de qué ha ocurrido (doubt)

• Dudo si va a venir al final o no (doubt)

Answer 3

From this website

acronym : Weirdo. The subjunctive is used for Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal Expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and is used after the words Ojalá

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100055/subjunctive#weirdo

Answer 4

We just recently had an entire discussion about the Subjunctive Mood, and if you do a search under "Subjunctiveland" you will find 5 posts from last week that discuss it. In it you will find comprehensive, understandable answers from both Lazarus and Izanoni among others. Print them out and study them. From that you will get a good jumping-off place. Then, instead of worrying about Spanish, turn your eye to seeing where the subjunctive mood is used in English....the applications are the same.

It's much easier to learn to identify the subjunctive in your native language than to try to get this new concept while trying to tackle a new language. If you read enough (hundreds, at least, by my account) of sentences in the subjunctive mood then you can dip your toes into applying it in Spanish.

Good luck. (I'm still working on it, but the folks here are marvelous at answering specific usage questions you may have about the subjunctive mood.)

That´s a start but in Spanish is used a wider range of circumstances. - BellaMargarita, Aug 31, 2010