A question: Subjunctive of perder in a sentence

Question

I was looking up the word "pena" in SD here. I encountered this sentence:

no vale la pena que perdamos el tiempo discutiendo eso: it's not worth wasting time arguing about it

Why in this sentence the verb "perder" is used in subjunctive? Can we just simply say "perdemos"?

Answer 1

Because there's the possibility to still waste time arguing about the same thing, the indicative would render the phrase a nonsesne

Gracias. Your explanation made me understand the meaning of the sentence better. - polarstar29, Jul 25, 2012

You're very welcome, good to know I made it clearer! - diagonx, Jul 26, 2012

Answer 2

The subjunctive must be used in this case. Most impersonal expressions, including "valer la pena", fall into one of the categories that require the subjunctive (doubt, unreality, emotion, etc.) when there is a subject change.

Thanks dear pescador. :-) - polarstar29, Jul 25, 2012

Answer 3

Because 'no vale la pena' is a judgment, a personal evaluation. This is one of the many cases where we have to use a subjunctive in Spanish: with verbs (or expressions)of emotion, with verbs of perception, for expressing desires and in the subclause when the main clause contains a future tense to refer to our plans for the future.

What do they have in common? They don't refer to objective statements ( for which we use the indicative) but express some kind op personal, subjective view

Thank you. I appreciate your explanation. - polarstar29, Jul 25, 2012