Preterit Subjunctive

Question

I am a little bit confused about the preterit subjunctive tense. I understand verbs like pudiera, tuviera, quisiera, etc., but I am confused about what I do with most normal verbs. I know someone who is a fluent Spanish speaker and she said that with normal verbs I should just say "hubiera and then the participle of the verb. For example with abrir, I thought that I would say "abriera" but she told me that you would say "hubiera abierto". I do not know if one is informal or what.

hubiera abierto is the pluscuamperfecto :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 22, 2011

Answer 1

The key is to start with the third person plural form of the preterit. Any irregularities will be found in this step. Remove the -ron - then just add your past subjunctive endings - ra, ras, ra, (accented vowel) + ramos, ran.

So Abrir as you though would be:

Abrieron in the third person plural preterite form

Abriera, abrieras, abriera, abriéramos, abrieran

There are also alternative se, ses, se, (accented vowel) + semos, sen but usually just learning the -ra endings is sufficient.

Hope that helps

Kiwi, there are two forms of "imperfect subjunctive", I can't find any "preterit subjunctive" - Sabor, Jun 22, 2011

ah I just took it to mean 'past' subjunctive :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 22, 2011

There is no preterite subjunctive. Preterite expresses a completed event, subjunctive expresses hypothetical. You cannot combine these contradictory forms - pesta, Jun 22, 2011

http://www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/spanish-grammar/verbs_subjunctive_past.shtml - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 22, 2011

The RAE refers to it as the pretérito imperfecto o pretérito del subjuntivo (it is the perfecto in pretérito pefecto simple...preterite) that implies that it's complete. The pretérito just means past. - 0074b507, Jun 22, 2011

Where English titles are used I have seen it listed mostly as the imperfect subjunctive, but I have also seen the perterite subjunctive used as a label. - 0074b507, Jun 22, 2011

Of course I have also seen "presente perfecto" used for the antepresente or pretérito perfecto compuesto. Just because it is used does not make it correct. - 0074b507, Jun 22, 2011

Is it the same with ar verbs also? - eltennis97, Jun 23, 2011