"Different" Subjects for Subjunctive

Question

I often see this injunction as part of lessons on the subjunctive: Parts of a Subjunctive Phrase

There are three main parts to a subjunctive sentence:

1. Two Different Subjects

There will be one subject in the main/independent clause, and one in the noun/dependent clause.

Quiero que limpies el baño. (I want you to clean the bathroom.)

My question is: even though there need to be two subjects--one for each clause--can they actually refer to the same person? Every example I see, like the one above, has two different people as subjects. Today, I saw this:

Niego que yo ___________ (almorzar) cada dia con Sonia. The correct answer was almuerce and I understood that the subjunctive would be called for after introducing NIEGO in the independent clause, but balked when I noticed both clauses were for YO.

So, is that fine then? We can use subjunctive even when both subject refer to the same person...as long as both clauses have a subject?

Answer 1

Normally if there's no change of subject you can just use the infinitive after the first verb.

Quiero ir. It's clear with this statement that you're talking about you wanting to go so no need for further clarification.

The use of the infinitive when there is no change of subject however seems optional and after some verbs it's more likely that 'que' plus the subjunctive is used, even though there's no change of subject.

After dudar or negar for instance if you just used the infinitive, it wouldn't be clear that you were referring to yourself in the second clause because it's not really expected that you will refer to yourself after these verbs, you could deny or doubt anything on any subject..

Hence using que + subject pronoun 'yo' + subjunctive removes any ambiguity.

Really helpful answer, Kiwi-Girl. Thank you kindly. - scratch2486, May 31, 2013

de nada :) - Kiwi-Girl, May 31, 2013