Spanish Grammar

SEARCH BAR

Search here!

Try these: SubjunctivesVerbsNounsExamsAdjectivesPast TensePronouns

Generic filters
Filter by Categories



















GRAMMAR INDEX

Spanish Grammar A1 ⮟
Ser and Estar in Spanish for Beginners
Está and Hay in Spanish to Express Location
The Present Indicative in Spanish
The verb querer in Spanish: how to use it
The Verb Gustar in Spanish
Demonstratives in Spanish and Adverbs of Place
Possessive Adjectives in Spanish
The Present Continuous in Spanish: Estar + Gerund
The Gerund in Spanish: Form and Basic Uses
Expressions of Quantity in Spanish: Muy and Mucho
Spanish Grammar A2 ⮟
Present Perfect Indicative in Spanish
The Past Simple in Spanish
The Preterite Imperfect Indicative in Spanish
Indicative past tenses in Spanish
How to Express Future in Spanish
How to use por and para in Spanish
Possessive Pronouns in Spanish
Comparative Adjectives in Spanish
Ya in Spanish: Meaning and Usage
Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish
Spanish Grammar B1 ⮟
The Pluperfect Indicative in Spanish
The Future Simple in Spanish
The Conditional Simple in Spanish
The imperative mood in Spanish
The present subjunctive in Spanish
Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish
General Rules of Accentuation in Spanish
Expressing Wishes with the Subjunctive in Spanish
The Use of Cuando with Indicative and Subjunctive
Spanish Grammar B2 ⮟
Advanced Uses of Conditional Simple
The Future Perfect in Spanish
The Conditional Perfect in Spanish
Present Perfect Subjunctive in Spanish
How do I use the past imperfect subjunctive?
The Pluperfect Subjunctive in Spanish
How to express probability in Spanish
Conditional Clauses in Spanish
Verbs of Change in Spanish
Reported Speech in Spanish
Spanish Grammar C1 ⮟
The passive Voice in Spanish
Adverbial Clauses of Manner in Spanish
Adverbial Clauses of Cause in Spanish
Clauses of Purpose in Spanish
Conditional Conjunctions in Spanish
Uses of the Pronoun SE with Syntactic Function
Uses of the Pronoun Se as a Verb Mark
The Indeterminate Feminine in Spanish

The present subjunctive in Spanish

The present subjunctive in Spanish is the first step of your “stairway to subjunctive”. Mastering the subjunctive is one of the keys to open the door of the advanced levels. Of course, on Spanishviaskype.com, we want to help you deal with it.

How to form the present subjunctive in Spanish

The construction of the present subjunctive in Spanish is not too difficult if you learnt the present indicative accurately. Of course, we mean the irregular forms. However, let’s start from the beginning and take a look at the regular verbs.

How to form the regular verbs

As we said before, the key is the present indicative. So, follow these steps to form the present subjunctive in Spanish:

1. Focus on the first person singular (yo): trabajo, como, vivo.

2. Drop the -o ending to get the root: trabaj…, com…, viv

3. Add these endings:

  • For -ar verbs: -e, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en.
  • For -er and -ir verbs: -a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an.

Present subjunctive in Spanish

Now that you know the regular forms, let’s take a look to the irregular ones.

How to form the irregular verbs

The irregularities are what make tough a verbal system in all languages. The present subjunctive in Spanish is not an exception. We need to difference three kinds of irregular verbs.

1. Verbs with spelling changes in the first person singular of the present indicative (yo)

Just follow the step 1 that we learnt before and use the root for all the forms. For example, for the verb tener, we look at the first person singular of the present indicative (tengo). We isolate the root (teng) and use it in all persons.

Irregular verbs with stem changes in the present subjunctive

2. Verbs with stem changes

As the present indicative, we have verbs with stem changes (e>ie, o>ue). We just need to change all the forms except nosotros and vosotros. The only exceptions we have are the verbs with this change e>i, like pedir. In this case, the changes persist in all the forms:

Irregular verbs with vowel stem changes in the present subjunctive

 

 

3. Other irregular verbs

Of course, there are verbs that don’t follow any kind of rule. Unfortunately, they are often the most used ones. Let’s see some of them:

Other irregular verbs in present subjunctive

When to use the subjunctive in Spanish

The present subjunctive in Spanish is mainly used to express an action in the present or the future in a subordinate clause that requires the usage of the subjunctive. Here, the big question is when does that clause require the subjunctive? Of course, that is the main problem with this verbal mode and that is what you will learn in further articles and in our lessons via Skype. Nevertheless, in the meantime we can say that we use the subjunctive when we express feelings, doubts, speculations, irreal thoughts, wishes and commands.

We hope you enjoy this article, but now it’s your turn to show your skills. Please, leave a comment below trying to conjugate some verbs in the present subjunctive in Spanish. Test yourself!