When Spanish students hear subjunctive they go into a panic mood, but today I am here to give you a small amount of it, so you don’t feel overwhelmed by it.
Today, as you probably know, we are talking about the subjunctive, not in depth, but just a little bit, enough to give you some bite size info and uses.
We are not going to go into the uses or big explanations, instead we are going to see some links, a bit different from the usual “que”, that can be used with both the subjunctive and the indicative, and how to know when to use each of them.
Ready?
Let’s jump in then.
A little bit of the Spanish subjunctive – markers
Let’s called these links, markers. These markers I am going to talk about today can be used as I said with both the subjunctive and the indicative in Spanish.
When we use them with a future sense we use the subjunctive, as the future is always a bit unknown, it has a bit of uncertainty, but when we use it to express a routine, something that always happens, we use the indicative as there is not uncertainly there, we have the experience it has happened in the past, and we hope that it will happen in the future.
How do we know if it is future or a routine? Easy!
You know that normally the markers (links) join two sentences, therefore if one of them is in the future or the imperative the marker will be followed by the subjunctive, but if one of the sentences is in the present tense, we will take it is a routine and we will use the indicative.
Note that the subjunctive will go after the marker, not in the other sentence
This will be clearer and it will make more sense with the examples.
Cuando-when
Cuando vaya a España, tomaré el sol àwhen I will visit next, future plans,
vs
Cuando voy a España tomo el sol à a routine something that always happens.
It could also be tomaré el sol cuando vaya a España and tomo el sol cuando voy a España, the order does not modify the meaning.
Tan pronto como-as soon as
Tan pronto como llegues a casa, llámame–As soon as you get home, call me, we use the imperative in this sentence. But it implies the future when you get there, in the future.
vs
Tan pronto como llego a casa llamo a mi madre. – As soon as I get home I call my mother, something happens every time I get home.
Mientras-while
Mientras vivas en mi casa harás lo que yo diga – While you are living on my house, you will do what I say àfor the time being, as long as you live there, in the future
Escucho música mientras hago los deberes de español – I listen to music while I do my Spanish homework, we understand that always, everytime you do the Spanish homework.
Hasta que/Hasta que no
No voy a ver la tele hasta que no termine los deberes de español – I am not going to watch tv until I finish the Spanish homework .Later on today.
No veo la tele hasta que no termino los deberes de español – I don’t watch tv until I finish my Spanish homework. Every time.
That is it! I hope you enjoyed this mini lesson and found it useful, now it is your turn, you know I love hearing from you so let me a comment:
-with a sentence, actually, two, using one of the markers I talked about in the subjunctive and the indicative.
-with other markers, if you any, that are in the same category that the ones we have seen today.
And if you have doubts or questions, please let them in the comments and I will get back to you.
Also a quick reminder that you can go to my YouTube channel to watch today’s lesson in video, and in Spanish, which can be a good listening practice:
Have a great day! And will see you next time!
Blanca
