Tenses of the subjunctive
Tenses of the subjunctive
Present subjunctive
• Swap endings with indicative (normal) tenses
• If it’s irregular in indicative , it will be irregular in the subjunctive
• Use FIRST person to start you off , any irregularities there will persisit all the way through, eg the G in tengo, radical changing verbs,spelling changes eg -cir/-cer, -zar,-ger/-car/guir infinitives.
• A few are TOTALLY irregular and do not follow the above : ser,caber,haber,ir,saber.
• If you know your present tense , it is easy !
Imperfect subjunctive
• It has two interchangeable endings , just to make it more weird ! They are totally interchangeable
.Advice :just learn one and stick to it !
• Formed from 3 rd person plural (they) of the preterite (simple past) , then add endings.
• AR verbs can be –ara or –ase , ir and er verbs can be –iera or –iese
• If it’s irregular in the preterite 3 rd person plural, it will have that irregularity in the imprefect subjuncive all the way through.
Forming imperfect subjunctive
•
-ara endings
Comprar –preterite 3 rd
-ase endings person plural –
Compraras Comprases compraron –subjunctive –comprara (DON’T
GET CONFUSED WITH FUTURE TENSE) OR
Comprarais comprase
Compraseis comprasen
Start from 3 rd person plural preterite tense COMPRARON
Add endings
-ER and –IR verbs
-iera endings
Bebiera
Bebieras
Bebiera
Bebiéramos
Bebierais bebieran
Start from 3 rd person plral preterite tense endings :bebieron(they drank) , add endings.
-iese endings
Bebiese
Bebieses
Bebiese
Bebiésemos
Bebieseis bebiesen
DODGY ONES(easy if you know preterite ones !)
• When preterite is irregular in 3 rd person plural , it will be perpetuated in the imperfect subjunctive.
• Radical changing –IR verbs eg dormir (u in 3 rd person stem in preterite)so durmiera in subj.
• ALL Preterito grave : eg estar ( estuvieron in preterite 3 rd person plural) , so estuviera in subj.decir –dijeron-dijera
• Spelling change in preterite(double vowels in infinitive) eg cayeron (they fell) (letter y added ) becomes cayera in subj.
Perfect and Pluperfect subjunctive
(and that’s all folks-no more tenses !!)
• Use haya instead of he/has/ha plus past participle for perfect subjunctive.(present subjunctive of haber)eg haya comprado (I might have bought)
• Use hubiera (imperfect subjunctive of haber) plus past participle for pluperfect subjunctive.
• Eg hubiera comprado (I might have /would have bought)
• Which tense of the subjunctive to use ? Mostly common sense , but see the “sequence of tenses” grid.
