How do I say, in Spanish, "I thought that..." and does it need the subjunctive?

Question

If I wanted to say "I thought that he just wanted a nice photo of us." do I need the subjunctive? Considering that I'm not entirely sure how to say the above sentence in Spanish in the first place, I am rather confused..

We've been learning about the subjunctive and when you use it in class recently, but now, whenever I want to use 'that' (que) in a sentence, I get frightened thinking I need the subjunctive. And if the sentence I want to construct is not similar to the sentences we've been learning, it is rather daunting...

Thank you for your time and effort!

Answer 1

Hi egduf8,

It's a very good question, and I'd like to add a little to the explanations you've already been given:

I suspect that you're asking because "you now know differently, he didn't actually just want to take a nice picture". Let's play with this context: You're Juan, out in Barcelona with your wife Julia. A guy comes over and asks to borrow your camera to take a nice picture of you, because you both look so lovely in the evening sunlight. He then runs off with your camera.

After this life lesson, you can tell your wife Julia (yes, getting married as a western man is another blunder to avoid, but focus, people!):

"Creía que sólo quería tomar una foto".

The sentence structure here involves a verb of perception in the positive sense, though tenuous: Creer. These verbs (almost universally) go in indicative, even though they may be in the past tense, and you now want to communicate that it was an erroneous assumption.

However, in the negative sense, these verbs behave differently with regards to mood: If I want to tell my friend Qfreed about this incident, I could at some point say:

Juan no sabía que iba a robarle la cámara.

Note the indicative of "iba" here. It could also have been "fuera" (subjunctive). The reason I would use the indicative is that good old Q didn't know about the robbery, and I explicitly signal that that was the case with the indicative. Normally, negated verbs of perception (including mental) go with the subjunctive, as you probably know: "No creo que + subj", etc. In this case, however, I'm able to use the indicative to point out to my listener that here is some new, actual information for you, and I communicate that explicitly by using the indicative.

So in the negative usage, I'm able to override the mood, and use the indicative to state a new fact, while in the positive usage the opposite does not apply.

Hope this wasn't as unclear as I fear it might be

Just wanted to say, what an awesome post. Now I wish I had given more explanation! - Jack-OBrien, Jul 13, 2011

Thanks! I try, I try :) I'm trying to base my explanations on what I would find helpful myself, some time back. Doesn't always work, of course. - Vikingo, Jul 19, 2011

Answer 2

Your sentence doesn't need the subjunctive.

• Yo creía que él solo quería una foto buena de nosotros.
• Pensé que él solo quería una foto buena de nosotros.

I suspect it is close to final exams and you are doing this young gentleman´s work for him. ;) - territurtle, Jul 12, 2011

I could be wrong but shouldn't buena come in front of foto here? - fatchocobo, Jul 12, 2011

If you're referring to me, than no, I am not a young gentleman and whilst my exams in November are coming closer, my question doesn't really have anything to do with that. To original answerer: thankyou. - egduf8, Jul 12, 2011

territurtle, why would you suspect that? - Vikingo, Jul 13, 2011

Answer 3

Is there any doubt in your mind that you thought that he only wanted to take a photo?

Since you're certain that you did think it, you should use the indicative.

Ah, yes, that makes things clearer! - egduf8, Jul 12, 2011