Subjunctive vs indicative help

Question

I am confused about this. I know that subjunctive expresses doubt but lets say you were trying to say this in spanish: "Are you done reading the book?" would you use subjunctive or indicative. My guess was indicative and thats what some other people told me also. But i am conflicted because the rules of subjunctive say that if it expresses doubt such as did you read the book.

Answer 1

I can see where you are coming from, because the subjunctive definitely expresses doubt. I have had a lot of problems in cases like this, so hopefully I can provide a little insight. In your case there are only one two responses to your question. "Yes" or "no", which eliminates the "doubt" factor. It is something that has either been done or not.

thats really helpful thanks! - gabesim, Feb 20, 2012

Answer 2

Welcome to the forum, Gabesim

You're right. In this case, you have to use the indicative: "¿Has terminado de leer el libro?".