Questions on Emotion part of subjunctive - lesson 3.1

Question

I'm trying to get more serious about understanding and using subjunctives correctly.

I just reviewed 3.1 and thought I understood that the subjuncitves that are involved in emotions have a pattern of: emotion word + de + que

for example: Estoy enojado de que el hombre sea a mi casa. (corrections welcomed)

But in the example that was given the 'de' was omitted: Mi hermano teme que monstruos vivan en su armario.

Is this a hard and fast rule or just a general rule that works most of the time?

Any help is welcome.

Answer 1

I think someone else with a better grasp of grammar than I will need to ultimately answer this for you, but since no one has yet (in order to move it back to the top), I will add a few comments:

I don’t think you can use the term “emotion word” and expect all connectors to be the same.

In the first example you give, you are working off an adjective, in the second off of a verb.

I do not understand the first sentence, but maybe you were trying for: “Estoy enojado de que el hombre esté en mi casa"

In which case I think you could say: Me enoja que el hombre esté en mi casa.

Which would be of the pattern of the second sentence.

This thread may provide some help: link text

If I try to add anything more, I will probably go even more wrong than I probably already have, but maybe this will incite someone with better ability to explain grammar to comment.

Thank you for the link. I'll look this one over. When it comes to subjunctives, I feel like I'm driving down the street hitting every garbage can but trying to avoid them. - katydew, Nov 9, 2011

That is how I felt at the start, learn each time you make an error, and you get better each time (said by someone who still has more errors to make) ;-) - Stadt, Nov 9, 2011

I think it you wrote: Estoy enojado porque el hombre está en mi casa, you could avoid subjunctive althogether, but I know that is not your intent. I do not have this completely down yet though, so don't quote me on it. :-) - Stadt, Nov 9, 2011