Set House Rules in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to set house rules in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• prohibit something

• demand that someone do something

• use vocabulary related to rules

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjective

Spanish	English
encendido	on [light, machine]

examples
Prohíbo que se deje la luz encendida. I prohibit leaving the light on.

Adverbs

Spanish	English
diariamente	daily
regularmente	regularly
suavemente	gently

examples
Que se tire la basura diariamente. That the trash be taken out daily.
Que se rieguen las plantas regularmente. That the plants be watered regularly.
Que se cierren las puertas suavemente. That doors be closed gently.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el audífono	headphones
la norma	rule
el pasillo	hallway
el plástico	plastic
la regla	rule
el respeto	respect
el turno	turn

examples
Que se escuche música sin audífonos. Listening to music without headphones.
Estas son las normas de nuestro hogar. These are the rules of our home.
Prohíbo que se corra en el pasillo. I prohibit running in the hallway.

Preposition

Spanish	English
tras	after

examples
Que se guarden los juegos tras usarlos. That games be put away after they're used.

Prepositional Phrase

Spanish	English
con llave	locked [with a key]

examples
Mando que se cierre la puerta con llave. I demand that the door be locked.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Fumar

Fumar(to smoke) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	fume	I smoke
tú	fumes	you smoke	informal singular you
vos	fumes	you smoke	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	fume	he, she smokes
usted	fume	you smoke	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	fumemos	we smoke
vosotros, vosotras	fuméis	you smoke	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	fumen	they smoke
ustedes	fumen	you smoke	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Guardar

Guardar(to put away) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	guarde	I put away
tú	guardes	you put away	informal singular you
vos	guardes	you put away	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	guarde	he, she puts away
usted	guarde	you put away	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	guardemos	we put away
vosotros, vosotras	guardéis	you put away	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	guarden	they put away
ustedes	guarden	you put away	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Prohibir

Prohibir(to prohibit) is an -ir verb that has a stem change in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	prohíba	I prohibit
tú	prohíbas	you prohibit	informal singular you
vos	prohíbas	you prohibit	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	prohíba	he, she prohibits
usted	prohíba	you prohibit	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	prohibamos	we prohibit
vosotros, vosotras	prohibáis	you prohibit	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	prohíban	they prohibit
ustedes	prohíban	you prohibit	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Note that there is no accent over the i in the nosotros and vosotros forms of prohibir.

Tirar

Tirar(to throw out [trash]) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	tire	I throw out
tú	tires	you throw out	informal singular you
vos	tires	you throw out	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	tire	he, she throws out
usted	tire	you throw out	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	tiremos	we throw out
vosotros, vosotras	tiréis	you throw out	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	tiren	they throw out
ustedes	tiren	you throw out	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Verb Phrase

In this skill, you learn the following verb phrase!

Faltar al respeto

Faltar al respeto(to disrespect) is an -ar verb that is regular in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	falte al respeto	I disrespect
tú	faltes al respeto	you disrespect	informal singular you
vos	faltes al respeto	you disrespect	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	falte al respeto	he, she disrespects
usted	falte al respeto	you disrespect	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	faltemos al respeto	we disrespect
vosotros, vosotras	faltéis al respeto	you disrespect	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	falten al respeto	they disrespect
ustedes	falten al respeto	you disrespect	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

The Present Subjunctive

The Spanish present subjunctive (el presente de subjuntivo) is used to talk about situations of doubt, desire, emotion, necessity, or uncertainty.

Unlike the present indicative, the present subjunctive is generally subjective.

Conjugating Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

To conjugate a verb in the present subjunctive, you must first remember what the present indicative yo form of the verb in question is. This is because the stem of present subjunctive verbs comes from the yo form of the present indicative. For many verbs, this will be the same as the infinitive stem, but for many others, such as verbs with spelling changes, stem-changing verbs, and irregular verbs, it will be different.

Present Subjunctive Stem Formula

The formula for finding the present subjunctive stem of a verb is the following:

present subjunctive stem = yo form of present indicative minus o ending

Regular Present Subjunctive Endings

Once you have the stem, you will add the present subjunctive ending that matches your subject. There are only two ending sets for the present subjunctive: one for -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs.

Subject	-ar Verb Endings	-er and -ir Verb Endings
yo	e	a
tú, vos	es	as
usted, él, ella	e	a
nosotros, nosotras	emos	amos
vosotros, vosotras	éis	áis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	en	an

Irregular Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

There are only six truly irregular verbs in the subjunctive. You'll find the conjugations for each of these verbs in the tables below.

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Dar, Estar, and Ser

Subject	Dar	Estar	Ser
yo	dé	esté	sea
tú, vos	des	estés	seas
usted, él, ella	dé	esté	sea
nosotros, nosotras	demos	estemos	seamos
vosotros, vosotras	deis	estéis	seáis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	den	estén	sean

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Haber, Ir, and Saber

Subject	Haber	Ir	Saber
yo	haya	vaya	sepa
tú, vos	hayas	vayas	sepas
usted, él, ella	haya	vaya	sepa
nosotros, nosotras	hayamos	vayamos	sepamos
vosotros, vosotras	hayáis	vayáis	sepáis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	hayan	vayan	sepan

To remember these six verbs, just think of the mnemonic DISHES:

Dar

Saber

Haber

Estar

Ser

Stem Changes and the Present Subjunctive

While they’re not entirely irregular, the following verbs do have certain changes that we need to keep in mind while conjugating verbs in the subjunctive:

1. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ar and -er Verbs

For verbs in this group, the e in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ie, or the o in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ue. All subjunctive forms follow the stem change except for nosotros and vosotros, which use the infinitive stem.

2. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ir Verbs

All e> ie and o> ue stem-changing -ir verbs follow the same changes as in the present indicative, except the nosotros and vosotros forms, in which the e changes to i and the o changes to u.

3. e> i Stem Changes with -ir Verbs

All e> i stem-changing -ir verbs in the present indicative maintain the stem change in all forms of the present subjunctive.

Subjunctive Trigger Words

WEIRDO

Many of the verbs and phrases that require the subjunctive fit into the acronym WEIRDO: Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and Ojalá.

In these lessons, we saw the following subjunctive trigger words and phrases:

Spanish	English
mando que	I demand that
prohíbo que	I prohibit

Passive and Impersonal Se

Impersonal Se

Impersonal expressions don’t reference a specific person. Rather, they make reference to people in general and are used to make general statements or questions about what they, one, or you do. That is what makes them impersonal!

You can use impersonal expressions to talk about how things are done according to custom, rule, or general consensus. They are also helpful for asking for directions, finding out how to say things properly, asking what the rules are in a specific place, making general statements, and so on.

examples
Prohíbo que se corra en el pasillo. I prohibit running in the hallway.

examples

Prohíbo que se corra en el pasillo.

I prohibit running in the hallway.

Passive Se

The passive voice is generally used to talk about something that happened to an object without saying who or what carried out the action. Only transitive verbs (verbs that require a direct object) are used in passive se constructions. It's very common to use the passive se to talk about inanimate (non-living) nouns. It is not common to refer to people using the passive se.