siento mucho que estés enfermo

Question

Why is this sentence in the subjunctive tense. It's just stating a fact. It's true that they are sick and it's true that they feel bad.

Answer 1

Yes, the subjunctive is used for expressing strong emotion. It's the E in WIERDO.

And yes, this is darn tricky for us while learning. Here, I think, we just have to accept the fact that "expressing emotion" completely trumps "stating the fact of sickness".

Next, it's not a 'they feeling bad" that is being referenced here. It's sientO - I feel bad that...

So, it is true that the speaker feels bad (is sorry, regrets, laments) that the 2nd party is sick. But that feeling is an emotion, so the second part just has to be expressed in the subjunctive.

The other perspective articles and others here have provided me as looking at one clause as being main and center stage, which gets the indicative, and the other secondary, which gets the subjunctive.

The main statement/clause here is Lo siente - I feel (bad) that

 then comes the minor clause

estés enfermo. -- you are sick.

It´s not that that isn´t important, but it´s not the meat of the speakers statement. Though it´s a fact, it´s a known fact, and thus isn´t center stage here, and thus subjunctive.

It´s also a case that isn´t paralleled in English, i.e. we wouldn´t use the subjunctive there, so it feels less natural to us at first.

We´ll get this one day. For me, this one´s not too bad, but there are others that seem clear to natives, and probably would to you too, that just seem to baffle me. Which ones I ´get´ still seems kind of random to me.

Good luck.

Perfect answer, Rog. I would say the weirdo approach works well for beginners, but ultimately, the second one is more helpful. - cogumela, Jan 27, 2013

Answer 2

It's expressing an emotion felt by the speaker.

Answer 3

Shouldn't this sentence start with LO ?

Lo siento mucho que estés enfermo.

I´m used to seeing ¨Lo siento¨ too, but when I thought about it, it seemed mostly as a stand-alone phrase. Here, I think it can be omitted, but I¨m not sure 100%, and am curious too. - rogspax, Jan 26, 2013

Yes, you are probably right. & if a Spaniard agrees, then you are definitely right! ;) - Ventana_al_mundo, Jan 26, 2013

The lo is optional in this case :) - cogumela, Jan 27, 2013