Creo que + indicative mood, isn't that the rule?
I have read many times that there are certain words that indicate which tense is going to be used, and I believe creo que was one of them. Anyway, today I was told that my sentence, "Creo que es cómico que se han olvidado el ascensor," is not correct, and it should be, "Creo que es cómico que se hayan olvidado el ascensor."
And I got more confused with the subjunctive now! I knew that you use the subjunctive for thoughts or things that are not facts or believed to be true by the speaker. According to that, the former sentence should be correct, right? Because I said, "creo que" "I believe that."
If my sentence were, "Es cómico que se hayan olvidado el ascensor." that would make sense to use the subjunctive, because it is what I think -- I think it is fine but it is me who thinks that. Can someone explain why is it used here? And how to avoid any kind of confusion related to the subjunctive next time?
2 Answers
Well, think of it this way. The verb affected by the "creo que" in this sentence is the "es cómico." It is quite correct to use the indicative here. However, the "es cómico que" itself modifies the "se hayan olvidado..." so that part, being preceded by an impersonal expression or "subjunctive trigger", needs to be in the subjunctive, regardless of the "creo que..." at the beginning of the sentence.
In this case "creo que" is not what determines whether the subjunctive is used, "es cómico" is what makes the subjunctive necessary. You are expressing an emotion.
