Severn Spanish

Imperfect subjunctive III

 

Introduction

So you know that the subjunctive is not a tense, but a mood, which means that it can have multiple tenses, much like the indicative has the present, preterite, imperfect, future, etc. Thus far, you have learned the present subjunctive. But what happens when you have a sentence in the past tense that requires the subjunctive? You use the imperfect subjunctive, of course.

 

Formation

There are two forms of the imperfect subjunctive: the -ra form and the -se form. It’s not actually necessary that you memorize both forms (although they are very similar, so if you know one you pretty much know the other), but you should be aware that both exist. If you only want to focus on one, pick the -ra form, as it is much more common in modern Spanish.

The formation of the imperfect subjunctive is a little strange. You start with the preterite ellos/ellas/ustedes form (the -aron/-ieron form) and then drop the -ron ending. From there, you add the imperfect subjunctive conjugations, which are the same for all infinitives. Both forms are provided below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that for both the -ra and -se versions, the nosotros/nosotras form requires an accent on the vowel preceding the conjugation ending. Take a look at the sample verbs conjugated below if that sounds confusing:

• bailar:

  • -ra form: bailara, bailaras, bailara, bailáramos, bailarais, bailaran

  • -se form: bailase, bailases, bailase, bailásemos, bailaseis, bailasen

• comer:

  • -ra form: comiera, comieras, comiera, comiéramos, comierais, comieran

  • -se form: comiese, comieses, comiese, comiésemos, comieseis, comiesen

• escribir:

  • -ra form: escribiera, escribieras, escribiera, escribiéramos, escribierais, escribieran

  • -se form: escribiese, escribieses, escribiese, escribiésemos, escribieseis, escribiesen

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The imperfect subjunctive might seem complicated to conjugate at first, especially with two separate versions, but there are a few great things about it. First, as mentioned above, the endings are the same regardless of whether the verb being conjugated is an -AR, -ER, or -IR infinitive. Second, there are no irregulars as long as you make sure you are starting with the ellos/ellas/Uds. form (this means that you need to know verbs that are irregular in the preterite, but once you do, you don’t need to know anything else to accurately conjugate every verb in the imperfect subjunctive).

 

Usage

The cases in which you use the imperfect subjunctive are just like the cases when you use the present subjunctive, except in the past. This means that the independent clause, the part in the indicative mood, will be in the either the imperfect or the preterite (or some compound tense in the past, such as the pluperfect or imperfect progressive).

Examples:

Era preciso que los soldados recibieran/recibiesen algo de comer. (It was necessary that the soldiers received something to eat.)

Me alegré de que Marta ganara/ganase la beca. (I was happy that Marta won the scholarship.)

El abogado dudó que su cliente le dijera/dijese la verdad. (The lawyer doubted that his client was telling him the truth.)

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