Present Perfect Subjunctive or Present Subjunctive?

Question

Hi, I'm having a difficult time knowing when to use the present perfect subjunctive vs. present subjunctive. I know that the present perfect subjunctive is used to talk about what someone has or hasn't done in the recent past (with the action fullfilling the requirements for the subjunctive).

Here is an example: Estamos todos felices de que ahora hayan 2 días libres o estamos todos felices de que ahora hayan habido 2 días libres?

The first one sounds right to me.

Here are two more: Estoy contenta que hoy sea o haya sido viernes. Necesitamos que los salones de clase estén o hayan estado limpios.

I feel like both tenses are correct. Are they? Can someone shed some light?

You have been answered please thank the member and give them a vote. - ray76, Feb 2, 2016

Answer 1

I don't know if this will help at all, since I am not a native speaker. So maybe you should wait for another answer, but this is the way I see it:

Estamos todos felices de que ahora hayan 2 días libres
Imagine you used to work all week and your only day off was Sunday. You complained with your boss and now you don't work on Saturdays anymore (and you won't do it in the future)

Estamos todos felices de que ahora hayan habido 2 días libres
To me this means that you recently got 2 days off, but there's no hint that it will continue to happen in the future.

Estoy contenta de que hoy sea viernes.
You could say this on a Friday at any time of the day.

Estoy contenta de que hoy haya sido viernes.
In this case, Friday is coming to an end. It's still Friday but your day is over and it'll be Saturday very soon.

Necesitamos que los salones de clase estén limpios.
Imagine that teachers are going to have a meeting with parents and they want to give a good impression. So they say that they need the classroom to be clean for the meeting that has not happened yet.

Necesitamos que los salones de clase hayan estado limpios.
In this case, the meeting has already happened. Maybe there are two teachers that couldn't attend the meeting having a conversation and they are like "we need the classroom to have been clean by the time the meeting occurred so that the parents see that our school is nice".
I'm sorry for the silly examples! It's the only way I can explain the way I understand it.

Thank you! This was helpful. - Luzzyv, Feb 2, 2016