Me alegras que sepas ?'?
I am learning Spanish and have spent a lot of time recently studying the subjunctive. I have seen various explanations for the use of the subjunctive including non-assertion, non-declaration, something that didn't happen, might have happened etc.
Me alegras que sepas seems to be regarded as a presupposition, based on the idea that something is being commented on. However this seems to contradict the idea of a non-assertion or declaration. I seem to be declaring that you know but then commenting on it.
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this subject, please.
3 Answers
Thank you very much. A clear and helpful explanation
lazarus1907 said:
It doesn't contradict anything. The whole point of using indicative is to "indicate" something to others that you think, believe, guess, imagine, know,...When you say "Me alegra que lo sepas", or similar sentences, the whole idea is not to indicate "Hey, you know it", which is what indicative would do: inform the other person about something that you think, believe, know... The other person knows it already, so why informing him? The point of saying "you know it" is not to inform him that he knows it, but just to mention that "knowing it thing" for the only purpose of saying (and here we require indicative) that you are glad about it. The only thing you are intending to inform about is that you are glad. The "you know it" part of the sentence is only added for the purpose of helping you express your idea accurately, and not to inform the other that he knows it.Indicative is used when you WANT to inform others of what you BELIEVE, THINK, KNOW,... If you just mention something because you want to say how you feel about it, you are not informing about it; you're just mentioning it because you want to inform JUST about your feelings. Hence the subjunctive.Does it make sense?
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Addendum:
Constructions like:
Me alegra que...
Me extraña que...
Es importante que...
are using subjunctive, because your intention is not to inform about those facts (which are assumed to be known by the other person), but just to mention them for the purpose of commenting about them. However, you may be interested in informing about those facts by simply stating that they are facts:
Me consta que lo sabes = It is a fact that you know it
Es obvio que lo sabes = It is obvious that you know it
It doesn't contradict anything. The whole point of using indicative is to "indicate" something to others that you think, believe, guess, imagine, know,...
When you say "Me alegra que lo sepas", or similar sentences, the whole idea is not to indicate "Hey, you know it", which is what indicative would do: inform the other person about something that you think, believe, know... The other person knows it already, so why informing him? The point of saying "you know it" is not to inform him that he knows it, but just to mention that "knowing it thing" for the only purpose of saying (and here we require indicative) that you are glad about it. The only thing you are intending to inform about is that you are glad. The "you know it" part of the sentence is only added for the purpose of helping you express your idea accurately, and not to inform the other that he knows it.
Indicative is used when you WANT to inform others of what you BELIEVE, THINK, KNOW,... If you just mention something because you want to say how you feel about it, you are not informing about it; you're just mentioning it because you want to inform JUST about your feelings. Hence the subjunctive.
Does it make sense'
