Your First Steps With the Spanish Subjunctive

What the subjunctive actually does

Most Spanish verbs you have learned so far are in the indicative. The indicative presents something as information: Ana trabaja hoy, Ana is working today. The subjunctive appears when the same event is not stated as a fact but placed inside someone's wish, advice, emotion or doubt: Quiero que Ana trabaje hoy, I want Ana to work today. Nothing has been claimed about whether Ana works. The sentence is about what the speaker wants.

English hides this distinction most of the time, which is why it feels foreign. English often uses an infinitive (I want her to work) where Spanish uses que plus a conjugated verb in the subjunctive. Keeping that comparison in mind helps: whenever your English sentence has the shape want someone to do something, Spanish will usually build it with que and the subjunctive.

Forming the present subjunctive

The usual method has three steps. Take the yo form of the present indicative, remove the final o, then add the opposite vowel endings: verbs in -ar take endings with e, and verbs in -er or -ir take endings with a.

• hablar: hablo, so que yo hable, que tú hables, que ella hable, que nosotros hablemos, que ellos hablen.
• comer: como, so que yo coma, que tú comas, que ella coma, que nosotros comamos, que ellos coman.
• vivir: vivo, so que yo viva, que tú vivas, que ella viva, que nosotros vivamos, que ellos vivan.

Starting from the yo form is useful because irregular stems carry over automatically. Tengo gives tenga, hago gives haga, digo gives diga, pongo gives ponga and conozco gives conozca. A small group needs to be learned separately: ser becomes sea, ir becomes vaya, estar becomes esté, dar becomes dé, saber becomes sepa and haber becomes haya. Learn these six as a short list and the rest follows the pattern.

Watch the spelling, not just the sound: buscar becomes busque, llegar becomes llegue and empezar becomes empiece, so that the consonant sound stays the same before the new vowel.

Situation one: wishes and wants

Begin with querer, esperar and preferir. When the person who wants and the person who acts are different, use que and the subjunctive: Quiero que vengas a la fiesta. Espero que tengas un buen viaje. Prefieren que hablemos en español. When the same person wants and acts, Spanish uses the infinitive instead: Quiero venir a la fiesta. This contrast between one subject and two subjects is the single most useful rule for a beginner, and it covers a large share of everyday subjunctive sentences.

Ojalá belongs here too. It expresses a hope and is followed directly by the subjunctive, with or without que: Ojalá llueva mañana. Ojalá que todo salga bien.

Situation two: advice and requests

Advice follows the same structure. Te recomiendo que practiques cada día. Es importante que duermas bien antes del examen. Te pido que me llames esta tarde. Many impersonal expressions that evaluate or recommend an action work this way: es necesario que, es mejor que, es importante que. If you said the same thing to everyone in general, without que and a specific person, you would use the infinitive: Es importante dormir bien.

Situation three: reacting with emotion

When you react to someone else's situation, the event appears in the subjunctive even if it is true: Me alegra que estés aquí. Siento que no puedas venir. Me sorprende que hable tan bien. This surprises many learners, because estés aquí is a fact. The point is that the sentence is not reporting the fact as news; it is expressing a feeling about it. Thinking of the subjunctive as the mood of reactions, rather than the mood of unreality, makes these sentences much less mysterious.

Mistakes beginners actually make

• Using the subjunctive with one subject. Say Quiero estudiar, not Quiero que estudie, when you are the one who will study.
• Copying the English infinitive. Quiero que tú vengas, not Quiero tú venir.
• Mixing up the endings. With -ar verbs the subjunctive uses e, so Espero que llegues, not Espero que llegas.
• Treating creer and pensar like wishes. In affirmative statements they normally take the indicative: Creo que tiene razón. The negative No creo que tenga razón usually takes the subjunctive, which you can study once the three situations above feel natural.

Choosing between moods is similar to choosing between ser and estar: it depends on what the speaker is doing with the sentence, not on a vocabulary list. If that idea helped you, our article on ser and estar without memorising lists uses the same approach.

Practice: wishes, advice and reactions

Complete each sentence with the correct form of the verb in brackets. Decide first whether the sentence needs the subjunctive or the infinitive. These are original exercises, not official exam questions.

1. Quiero que tú ______ conmigo. (venir)
2. Mis padres esperan ______ en junio. (viajar)
3. Es importante que nosotros ______ la verdad. (decir)
4. Me alegra que ustedes ______ aquí. (estar)
5. Te recomiendo que ______ este libro. (leer)
6. Ojalá que no ______ mañana. (llover)

Suggested answers

1: vengas, from the yo form vengo. 2: viajar, because the parents both hope and travel, so the infinitive is correct. 3: digamos, from digo. 4: estén, one of the irregular forms to memorise. 5: leas, from leo. 6: llueva, a stem change carried over from llueve. If you missed number 2, review the one subject, two subjects contrast before anything else, because it prevents the most common overuse of the subjunctive.

A short routine for the next week

Each day, write three sentences: one wish with quiero que, one piece of advice with te recomiendo que and one reaction with me alegra que. Say them aloud, then change the person in each one. After a week, the forms will start to arrive before you think about the rule. When you are ready to combine moods with time, our guide to Spanish past tenses is a good next step. If you are not sure whether the subjunctive belongs at your current level, take Vocalyra's free placement assessment to find the right starting point.