Transcript The Present Subjunctive in Spanish

The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Spanish has many tenses and other forms for
verbs, but the endings attached to the “stem” are
generally short. The Present Subjunctive is one
more “form” of the verb. Look at the following
present subjunctive form for all six persons.
Which Spanish verb do they correspond to?
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Right, the verb “hablar”. Except for the “yo”
form, you must recognize the endings! Think
of this as a trick! -AR verbs use the endings of
–ER verbs! It almost looks like there is a verb
“habler” in Spanish, but there isn’t.
habl -e
habl -es
habl -e
habl -emos
habl -éis
habl -en
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
We’ve already used the tú form hables! Where?
Right, for the negative tú commands! That
doesn’t at all mean that this command is a
subjunctive, but we can say that this command
uses one of the six “subjunctive forms”.
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Familiar Command
So, no hables means “don’t speak”, for
example when being bossy to a gabby friend.
(Note that the opposite command, habla is
NOT a subjunctive form.)
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Formal Command
Well, guess what! The formal command uses
a subjunctive form when you want to shut
your professor up, for example:
Profesor, por favor no hable.
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Formal Command
But beware, even with the por favor it may come
across as an impolite sentence, even though the
command is grammatically “polite”. To make
amends, you may want to order the opposite:
Profesor, por favor hable.
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Formal Command
So, the third person singular form provides you
with both a positive and a negative command to
use, for example with people of authority with
whom you’d probably not expect to give
commands anyway. But there are situations, for
example someone may be in danger!
pare
pares
¡Pare!
paremos
paréis
paren
The Formal Command
Remember to place any direct, indirect or
reflexive pronouns in their correct place, and put
an accent mark whenever the stress of the word
ends up on the third syllable from the end:
¡Búsquelo!
¡No lo bailes!
¡Lávese!
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Let’s leave the topic on formal commands on the
“back burner”. Hablemos de esos más tarde.
Let’s first understand how to get the Present
Subjunctive forms for any verb. Let’s start with
the –AR verbs. (The following conjugation looks
like a prayer:)
ame
ames
ame
amemos
améis
amen
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Take the present tense “yo” form you are
familiar with and chop off the “o” ending.
habl
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Step 2: If we have an –AR verb, then add
the familiar present tense endings for –ER
verbs. For the new yo form, use the third
person singular (él) form.
hable
hables
hable
hablemos
habléis
hablen
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Let’s generalize Step 2 to any verb:
Step 2: If we have an –AR verb, then add
the familiar present tense endings for –ER
verbs. If we don’t have an –AR verb, then
add the –AR endings. For the new yo form,
use the third person singular (él) form.
escriba
escribas
escriba
escribamos
escribáis
escriban
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Wow! Looks like there’s a verb escribar in
Spanish, but really there isn’t.
escriba
escribas
escriba
escribamos
escribáis
escriban
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Because of this rule, any stem-changes that
occur in the familiar present tense also
occur in the present subjunctive…
piense
pienses
piense
pensemos
penséis
piensen
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
…and any verb that has an irregular yo form
in the familiar present tense, has an
irregular subjunctive form for all persons.
salga
salgas
salga
salgamos
salgáis
salgan
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Careful to make the usual spelling changes
that keeps the sound of the last consonant
of the stem intact!
juegue
juegues
juegue
juguemos
juguéis
jueguen
The Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Now that we know how to get the
subjunctive forms, let us see how we can
use the ellos form for something.
salga
salgas
salga
salgamos
salgáis
salgan
The Plural Formal Command
If all the cabinet ministers of the president of
some South American democracy invade your
home at night, you may say:
¡Salgan de aquí!
salga
salgas
salga
salgamos
salgáis
salgan
The Present Subjunctive “Form”
So, we’ve made use of several of the subjunctive
forms WITHOUT using the SUBJUNCTIVE. In the
next presentation, we will be using the
SUBJUNCTIVE.
salga
salgas
salga
salgamos
salgáis
salgan
The Present Subjunctive “Form”
What use does the nosotros subjunctive form
have without using it as a SUBJUNCTIVE?
¡Salgamos de aquí!
(shouted out by a Minister of Education)
salga
salgas
salga
salgamos
salgáis
salgan