Severn Spanish

Subjunctive II/III: Formation of present subjunctive

 

Introduction/Review

For a full review, read through The Subjunctive III: General. For a quick refresher, take a look at the bullets below:

• The subjunctive is a mood, not a tense. It expresses the speaker’s attitude about what he/she is saying.

• Tenses tell when actions take place. They overlap moods. For instance, there is a present subjunctive and an imperfect subjunctive, just like there is a present indicative and a past indicative.

• The subjunctive will hardly ever be the only verb in the sentence. It is nearly always the verb of a dependent clause, which is attached to a main clause that has a verb in the indicative mood.

 

Formation

If you have studied usted/ustedes commands, you have actually already seen what verbs look like in the present subjunctive. It’s kind of like switching the normal endings: -AR verbs get -ER endings, and -ER and -IR verbs get -AR endings. Here’s a more specific formula:

 

 

 

 

 

-AR verbs in the present subjunctive

The following are the conjugation endings for -AR verbs in the present subjunctive:

 

 

 

 

 

Here is bailar in the present subjunctive:

 

 

 

 

 

You might notice that the yo and él/ella/usted forms are identical. If no subject is stated, you’ll have to rely on context clues to figure out who is performing the action of the verb.

 

-ER and -IR Verbs in the present subjunctive

Same formula, different endings.

 

 

 

 

 

Comer and escribir in the present subjunctive:

comer

 

 

 

 

 

escribir

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick reference: