Present - past subjunctive

Question

English has a very limited use of the subjunctive, whereas Spanish has various options in multiple tenses.

In English, one would say: "If I were you, I wouldn't do that", even if we meant if I were you at this very moment of speaking, in other words, the present tense. Spanish, on the other hand has subjunctive forms in the present, past, and even the future. Are there any circumstances where a Spanish speaker would say: "Si sea Ud. no haría eso," ? Or would it usually be: "Si fuese Ud., no haría eso"?

Or how about this? "If I had those documents right now, I could tell you."
Si tenga esos documentos ahora mismo, podría decírtelo.

Si tuviera esos documentos ahora mismo, podría decírtelo.

I'm sure this is an exercise in academics, but I would like to hear from some of you.

Thank you.

¡Muchas gracias a todos! - gmyers4, Nov 20, 2013

Answer 1

Using present subjunctive as you have in your hypothetical examples does not work because this tense, even though present subjunctive, looks ahead to a future action, ie: Cuando tenga los documentos, yo te aviso (we could say "avisaré, but it´s a little unnatural). This sentence is not so much hypothetical as it is a statement of future action with a condition.

Also note that it is gramatically incorrect to use 1st person in present subjunctive when following si.

Answer 2

You can pretty much say that you never use the present subjunctive after si except if you say no sé si. As far as I know there is not even any regional use of the present subjunctive after si apart from that one use and even then it's just one of a couple of valid options.

You may find this discussion helpful.

Answer 3

So I did some research and apparently it's not common to use the present subjunctive after "si", but it's really a regional thing. It appears all over (but it's apparently not very common in Spain), but not everyone does it.

I don't think it's considered proper usage, but some people use the present subjuntive after "no sé si" to add a touch of doubt to the situation.

On word reference (a site like SpanishDict) I read a thread where a bunch of native Spanish speakers talked about this and some said that it sounded unnatural and others said it s completely fine.

I feel like I just opened up (another) can of worms.

Answer 4

From my experience, there are only 2 types of if statements. Possible and Impossible. Possible is:

Si + [Indicative] + [Indicative]:

Impossible is

Si + [Pluperfect or Imperfect Subjunctive] + [Conditional Perfect or Conditional]

I've never, ever, heard a sentence like "Si tenga los documentos...". The correct way would be "Si tuviera los documentos" (If I were to have the documents) or "Si hubiera tenido los documentos" (If I had had the documents).

I haven't seen or heard those either, but my student, (a lawyer JD) who is very precise in his use of language asked about the possibilty. Thank you. - gmyers4, Nov 20, 2013