Sentirse con el subjuntivo
Hola a todos! Tengo una pregunta...
¿Cuándo se usa el subjuntivo con el verbo SENTIRSE? Mi amiga mexicana me dijo anteayer, "Ayyy...¡me siento que me muero!" ¿Por qué se dice muero y NO muera en este caso?
Why not "muera"? Aren't we supposed to use the subjunctive with emotions, wants/ desires, and doubts?
Gracías de antemano,
Katie
3 Answers
¿Por qué se dice muero y NO muera en este caso? Why not "muera"? Aren't we supposed to use the subjunctive with emotions, wants/ desires, and doubts?
First of all, I would ditch that aburd rule about subjunctive being about desires and emotions, because subjunctive is often used to refer to facts, and literally every single tense in Spanish can express wants, desires, and doubts; that fact, alone, should be enough to question the wisdom behind such "rule."
Verbs in subjunctive are used to complete the meaning of a main verb within a sentence, indicating that the information provided is not intended to stand on its own, but only to support the main statement. I know this short explanation doesn't clarify a lot, but the consequence of this is that most verbs that are used to provide information are, by their very nature, not compatible with subjunctive, and when you say "Siento que...", you are clearly about to provide some meaningful information that could have been expressed on its own (e.g. ¡Me muero!), therefore, you need indicative, not subjunctive.
Sentir can mean "to feel" in which case it is similar in Spanish to "creer" or "pensar."
"I feel that" ...is similar to "I think that" or "I believe that." With this meaning the indicative is normally used.
Sentir que can also mean...I'm sorry that. In this case it is an emotional reaction to whatever follows que so it normally uses the subjunctive.
Here are several sentences from the SD dictionary which should demonstrate the difference.
Siento que no puedas venir. (subjunctive)
I'm sorry you can't come.
Quizá sintió que no le estaba diciendo la verdad. (indicative)
Maybe she sensed that I wasn't telling her the truth.
Siento que esto no acabará bien. (indicative)
I have a feeling that this isn't going to end well.
Siento informarle que no ha sido seleccionado. (indicative)
I'm sorry to tell you that you haven't been selected.
I regret to inform you that you haven't been selected. (formal)
The above is particularly interesting because "I'm sorry" is followed by "informar" which calls for the indicative because you are giving someone some news. You are declaring what follows to be the truth, so that fact that you might be sorry about it is not as important as the truth of the information.
Siento mucho que pienses de esa forma. (subjunctive)
I'm very sorry that you feel that way
El subjuntivo se usa con sentirse sólo cuando se trata de algo condicional o hipotético, ej: "Me siento como si fuera rico." La verdad es que la persona no es rica.
"Ayyy...¡me siento que me muero!"
En este caso la person tiene una percepción verídica de lo que es morirse debido a algo que le haya ocurrido o de alguna enfermedad que le afecta en el momento de decir la frase. Además, esta frase es simplemente un sentimiento, ej: "Me siento bien / mal / feo / que me muero"
