The Subjunctive in Adjective clauses continued
No conozco la panadería que esté (estar) enfrente del banco.
Mi esposo y yo necesitamos un préstamo que podemos (poder) pagar a plazos.
Marta busca el salón de belleza que no cierre (cerrar) a mediodía.
Pepa y Lucía buscan la pastelería que tenga (tener) los mejores pasteles de la ciudad.
Are these right?
4 Answers
I think the last two should use the plain indicative because theh aricle ' el salón' and la 'pastelería' show that these people are looking for a particular place that exists rather than 'un salón de belleza que no cierre'/which may or may not shut and la pastelería, known to make the best cakes, as opposed to wandering around, looking for 'una pastelería ' and tasting all the cakes in town.
I think ' mi esposo y yo buscamos un préstamo que podamos pagar a plazos ( such a loan probably doesn't exist these days).
However, I shall be very happy to hear other views.
I surely am no scholar of the subjunctive, but according what I do know these are my comments.
No conozco la panadería que esté (estar) enfrente del banco. My thought is that this is a negative assertion and subjunctive could not be used here.
Mi esposo y yo necesitamos un préstamo que podemos (poder) pagar a plazos. I think there is one error here- and that is the conjugation of "poder" in subjunctive present.
Marta busca el salón de belleza que no cierre (cerrar) a mediodía. Seems correct to me ,also that subjunctive is needed to express this as a possibility.
Pepa y Lucía buscan la pastelería que tenga (tener) los mejores pasteles de la ciudad. Seems correct as well, and again that subjunctive is needed to express the thought as a possibility.
Since my opinion won’t be the only one, I will render my opinion:
I think all those referring to a place with a definite article are referring to a place that definitely exists, and therefore do not take subjunctive in the adjectival clause. I think if you changed to the indefinite article in each of those sentences then they would take subjunctive, because you are no longer asserting that such a place exists.
The one that uses the indefinite article is referring to a hypothesized loan, not one that is being definitively asserted as existing, and so would be subjunctive. Again if it had a definite article you would be asserting that such a loan exists, and that you need it, but since you are stating that it does exist it would not be subjunctive.
Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Here are my suggestions but I add them with the waiver that I'm not a native speaker and I would suggest waiting for confirmation (or otherwise) from a native speaker if possible.
No conozco la panadería que esté (estar) enfrente del banco.
I would use the indicative here, by giving its location it seems that you do not doubt its existence but rather are just stating that you personally haven't seen it or been there etc.
No conozco la panadería que está enfrente del banco.
Mi esposo y yo necesitamos un préstamo que podemos (poder) pagar a plazos.
Perhaps this sentence would be better if you added 'para'. Mi esposo y yo necesitamos un présamo para que podamos pagar a plazos.
Marta busca el salón de belleza que no cierre (cerrar) a mediodía.
Because you're saying 'the' salon (definitely exists) and not 'a' salon (that may or may not exist) you use the indicative. ... que no cierra ...
Pepa y Lucía buscan la pastelería que tenga (tener) los mejores pasteles de la ciudad.
Although the above logic could apply I can also see how this time the definite article may just be used to highlight that it's 'the best' and not 'the' as in a specific one bakery. So I'm guessing that you could go either way but as I mentioned I'm not a native speaker and still very much fallible when it comes to the Spanish subjunctive.
