Ojalá que...
In the word of the day "la receta" shouldn't "gustar" be in the subjunctive? Here is what was sent: ¡Ojalá que le gusta! 'Shouldn't it be "Ojalá que le guste!" '
11 Answers
I was reminded of your comment about the "Word of the Day" being much improved, Natasha, when I opened the email account in which I receive these words from SpanishDict.com. (I don't otherwise use that email much). I was surprised at how much it has indeed improved! Just on the 13th of this month we had an entry such as "geología" -> english word: "geology"
And then...what a coincidence, when I opened the next mail from just a couple of days later, I found this:
Ojalá
Posted: 16 Nov 2008 04:00 AM PST
Ojalá (o-hah-lah') Hopefully; May (something happen)
Examples:
¡Ojala que gane la carrera! - Let's hope he wins the race!
¡Ojalá que sea verdad! - I hope it's true!
Idioms:
¡Ojalá! - I/let's hope so!/God willing!
When 'ojalá? is followed by a verb, it should always be conjugated in the subjunctive tense. [I added the emphasis, bold]
For more information and examples, visit the SpanishDict.com entry for Ojalá.
Natasha said:
Janice, I think that was just a typo in the "Word of the Day." The "Word of the Day" is much improved now, actually. I believe the song you're thinking of is "Ojalá que llueva café." There's a really good website with explanations of the vocabulary in the song. If I can find it again, I'll paste the link here in this discussion.
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You pointed out two errors, Heidita.
Actually, only one. She wrote:
Ojalá que le guste is the correct version.
Actually, I would have said: Ojalá le guste
Both versions are perfectly correct. I think she meant that she prefers one over the other, probably because of geographical variation. The use of "que" in this construction is much more common in the Americas.
Ojalá que le gusta'''?
Oh, my God!
You are declaring in indicative that he likes it, but at the same time you are saying I hope so (ojalá), avoiding that declaration beforehard. It doesn't make sense!
Thank you, Natasha, that is really a terrific web site! It has a lot of exercises, too. Perhaps we should paste the url into another thread in which Daniel Haller asks how to practice conjugating verbs!
Natasha said:
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Songs are hard, Janice, don't worry about it.
Wow, yes, I looked it up and it is "llueva" !! And my mistake was not a typo. (In a meek defense,) I try hard not to look at words when I am learning them or read passages when I am listening to them, just "escuchando" for about 100 times before I look to see how what what I think I am hearing is written. But I should have looked in this case before writing my comment. Perdón!
Natasha said:
Janice, I think that was just a typo in the "Word of the Day." The "Word of the Day" is much improved now, actually.I believe the song you're thinking of is "Ojalá que llueva café." There's a really good website with explanations of the vocabulary in the song. If I can find it again, I'll paste the link here in this discussion.
>
Janice, I think that was just a typo in the "Word of the Day." The "Word of the Day" is much improved now, actually.
I believe the song you're thinking of is "Ojalá que llueva café." There's a really good website with explanations of the vocabulary in the song. If I can find it again, I'll paste the link here in this discussion.
Well, so much for trying to figure out why the phrase sent might have been correct!
But it gives me pause to wonder who, then, composes the mail with the word or phrase of the day. You pointed out two errors, Heidita. Well, you did not really say that what you would have actually said made the other way of saying it (with the subjunctive, of course) incorrect. -- Nonetheless, it raises the question: Are the authors not native speakers? or is this a kind of error that a native speaker might indeed make? (I know that where I grew up there are several common errors made by people who of course speak English as their mother tongue.)
Heidita said:
Deborah, thanks for pointing this out. This is really quite a bad mistake and very misleading . Ojalá always takes the subjunctive. Ojalá que le guste is the correct version.
Actually, I would have said: Ojalá le guste
I dont' know your level, but this has been a very good observation!
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Deborah, thanks for pointing this out.
This is really quite a bad mistake and very misleading .
Ojalá always takes the subjunctive.
Ojalá que le guste is the correct version.
Actually, I would have said: Ojalá le guste
I dont' know your level, but this has been a very good observation!
Well, Deborah, I am only just learning Spanish myself, but coincidentally I happen to be listening to a song by Juan Luis Guerra, "Ojalá que lleva el café", which my daughter told me her teacher at a university in Salamanca, Spain played to introduce the subjunctive.
However, Juan Luis Guerra is certainly "wishing / hoping" for something in his lyrics. Maybe in your "word of the day" phrase, the cook is not expressing the hope that whatever she cooked wil taste really good to "le" but rather expressing "Wow! how good it tastes," in which case perhaps one would not employ the subjunctive.
Let's hope now that someone will help us out here who is not guessing, but knows! (I suppose that if I were advanced enough in Spanish, I would be able to express that sentence in the subjunctive. Qué nos ayude cualquien!)
ps, My daughter also learned to dance merengue to that song
