Present vs. Imperfect Subjunctive Question/Pregunta sobre el subjuntivo presente e imperfecto
Last week my Spanish teacher had us go to the computer lab to do some practice tests for the National Spanish Exam. One of the questions (or problems, I suppose) in the sequence of tenses section threw me for a loop.
It read:
Antonio acaba de tomar el examen de cálculo. Espero que (salir) bien.
I was to conjugate "salir" correctly according to the sentence. I thought that "saliera" would work, but the test said it was wrong and should be "haya salido." I asked my Spanish teacher about it, and she said that there wasn't really any reason "saliera" should have been wrong.
I did a little bit more research a little bit ago and found that "haya salido" was popping up a lot more than "saliera" (at least on the web), but also that some people did still use "saliera."
So my question is this: is there a definitive way to conjugate "salir" here, or is it a regional thing? Also, if either is wrong, why?
La semana pasada, mi maestra de español nos llevó al laboratorio de las computadoras para presentar unos exámenes de practicar para el "National Spanish Exam." Una pregunta en la sección de la secuencia de los tiempos me confundió.
Dijo:
Antonio acaba de tomar el examen de cálculo. Espero que (salir) bien.
Había de conjugar "salir" correctamente según la oración. Creía que "saliera" funcionaría, pero el examen dijo que no, y que debía ser "haya salido." Le pregunté a mi maestra, y ella dijo que en realidad no había una razón que "saliera" no funcionaría.
Lo investigué un poquito más hace poco, y descubrí que "haya salido" se usa más que "saliera" (a lo menos en la Web) pero que "saliera" también se usan unas personas.
Así que, les pregunto esto: ¿hay una manera definitiva por conjugar "salir" en este caso, o es la conjugación regional? También, si uno está incorrecto, ¿por qué?
4 Answers
Spanish subjunctive verb tenses
VII. Reminders:
If the governing verb is in the present, future, future perfect tense or is a command and if the subjunctive is required in a subordinate clause, use the present subjunctive for a simultaneous or future action or the present perfect subjunctive for a previous or already completed action. [Exceptions: 1) after ojalá when used as I wish and after como si use one of the two past subjunctives; 2) the imperfect subjunctive can be used after one of the “present time” tenses where the imperfect indicative would have been used if the indicative mood would have been used].
You might wish to look at exception 2 while here.
The important part of the phrase here is "acaba de", not "espero". There is nothing wrong with using "espero" and an imperfect subjunctive, of course.
The "haya" takes into account that your friend's test has just been taken. The present perfect shows a "relevance to the present", instead of leaving your statement more in the past.
In English (and not at all saying that the cases are parallel across languages, of course), you would say "I hope he's done OK" (haya salido), instead of "I hope he did OK" (saliera).
From what I've read and experienced with Spanish speakers, this difference is somewhat pedantic, and there are lots of regional differences, as there are with the use of the present perfect and the imperfect in general.
Let's wait for the natives to chime in 
The controlling verb is in the present tense and you are describing something in the past, so the correct tense from the sequence of tenses is the present perfect subjunctive "haya salido".
You will notice that the chart indicates that the imperfect subjunctive can also be used when the imperfect would normally be used if it were not a subordinate clause requiring the subjunctive.
I had written a similar response, then deleted it. I thought that since acaba (although in the present tense) spoke of the recent past (present perfect) so the conversation should remain in the recent past, but didn't feel that one sentence could control another to that extent.
