Master The Spanish Subjunctive Tense With Ultimate Guide & Examples
Spanish subjunctive is one of the most challenging topics in Spanish grammar. Here, on Effortless Conversations, we teach you with a different method, that’s not like textbook Spanish.
With Conversation Based Chunking, you don’t need to remember grammar definitions or learn Spanish vocabulary lists by heart. Instead, you learn Spanish subjunctive by immersing yourself in the language.
Maura from Spring Spanish simply explains what’s the difference between Spanish subjunctive and Spanish Indicative:
And now, in a few steps, we’ll explain the subjunctive in Spanish, and give you chunks to learn it effortlessly!
1. What is the Spanish subjunctive?
Effortless Answers
The Spanish subjunctive is a grammatical mood.
It expresses states like wishes, doubts, emotions, possibilities, and hypothetical situations. The subjunctive in Spanish is used in scenarios where the outcome or action is not guaranteed.
Spanish subjunctive is used in dependent clauses. The whole mood is introduced with certain expressions or Spanish conjugations. And these little words signal the need for the Spanish subjunctive mood.
Enough of the talk already. Let’s review an example:
Spanish | English |
---|---|
Espero que tengas un buen día. | I hope you have a good day. |
In this Spanish sentence, the verb “tengas” is in the subjunctive mood. Tengas illustrates a wish or desire, rather than a statement of fact – a definition for the Spanish indicative.
2. Is the subjunctive in Spanish another tense?
Simply answered: no.
The Spanish subjunctive is not a verb tense. Rather, it’s a grammatical mood. Spanish tenses are about actions that happen in the past, present or future, while the moods are about how someone or something deals with the nature of these actions.
For these actions, it doesn’t matter if they’re real or hypothetical.
Let’s check a few examples:
Tense | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Present Subjunctive | Espero que vengas mañana. | I hope you come tomorrow. |
Imperfect Subjunctive | Si vinieras, estaríamos felices. | If you came, we would be happy. |
Present Perfect Subjunctive | Dudo que hayan terminado. | If you came, we would be happy. |
Past Perfect Subjunctive | Si hubieras venido, habríamos celebrado. | If you had come, we would have celebrated. |
Can you already tell the difference between the Spanish subjunctive and the Spanish indicative? No?
Don’t worry! It’s time to explore that question!
3. Subjunctive mood in Spanish vs Spanish indicative
The indicative and subjunctive are both grammatical moods in Spanish. That’s the only common thing about them, because they have different purposes and are used in totally different contexts.

Express facts with indicative mood in Spanish
The Spanish indicative mood is used to show facts, certainty, and objective reality. It’s used when talking about actions, events, or states that are real or definite.
You’ll run into the indicative mood in Spanish a lot.
All of these sentences in Spanish are in the indicative mood:
Tense | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Present Indicative | Ella come sushi. | She eats sushi. |
Past Indicative | Ellos fueron al cine. | They went to the movies. |
Future Indicative | Mañana lloverá. | It will rain tomorrow. |
Use the subjunctive mood to express doubts
The subjunctive mood, on the other hand, is used to express subjective situations. We already mentioned it in this article, so for now, let’s just go deeper with the examples:
Tense | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Present Subjunctive | Espero que ella coma sushi. | I hope she eats sushi. |
Imperfect Subjunctive | Si ella comiera susi, estaría feliz. | If she ate sushi, she would be happy. |
Present Perfect Subjunctive | Dudo que ellos hayan ido al cine. | I doubt that they have gone to the movies. |
4. Use the Spanish subjunctive with subordinate clauses
So far, this has been pretty straightforward, and you wonder: why would anyone say the subjunctive is a complex grammar topic?
Well, you can learn it easily, but here’s the catch!
The Spanish subjunctive doesn’t function independently: it appears in subordinate clauses. The most common words and Spanish conjunctions that go together with the Spanish subjunctive are the following:
Spanish | English | Expression |
---|---|---|
Querer que | To want that | Desire |
Esperar que | To hope that | Hope |
Desear que | To wish that | Desire |
Preferir que | To prefer that | Preference |
Dudar que | To doubt that | Doubt |
No creer que | Not to believe that | Doubt |
No estar seguro de que | Not to be sure that | Uncertainty |
Alegrarse de que | To be glad that | Emotion |
Sentir que | To be sorry that | Emotion |
Temer que | To fear that | Emotion |
Es necesario que | It is necessary that | Necessity |
Es importante que | It is important that | Necessity |
Es mejor que | It is better that | Preference |
And a few example sentences to illustrate them:
Spanish | English |
---|---|
Quiero que vengas conmigo. | I want you to come with me. |
Dudo que él sepa la respuesta. | I doubt that he knows the answer. |
Temo que llueva mañana. | I fear that it will rain tomorrow. |
Es importante que hagas ejercicio. | It is important that you exercise. |
In each of these sentences, the subordinate clause follows “que” and gives additional information to the context that completes the meaning of the main clause.
5. Spanish subjunctive mood independent usage and commands
There some limited cases where the subjunctive can appear in independent clauses. It’s rare, but it happens! These are often fixed expressions or commands, and they are populous in formal or literary contexts.
Ojalá + [subjuntivo]
Spanish | English |
---|---|
¡Ojalá haga buen tiempo mañana! | I hope the weather is good tomorrow! |
Que… + [subjuntivo]
Spanish | English |
---|---|
¡Que tengas un buen día! | Have a good day! |
Commands, especially negative commands, often use the subjunctive, too
No… + [subjuntivo]
Spanish | English |
---|---|
¡No hables! | Don’t speak! |
In these cases, the subjunctive form is used directly, but it is important to understand that this is a specific usage tied to imperative cases or fixed expressions.
6. How to use the subjunctive in Spanish
The Spanish subjunctive mood used in different tenses:
- Present
- Imperfect
- Present Perfect
- Past Perfect
- (+1 Future)

All of them have their own rules on how to form the subjunctive.
Present Subjunctive (Presente de Subjuntivo)
Used for actions that are happening now or in the near future and are uncertain or subjective. Forming the present subjunctive is pretty simple: you just have to add the endings to the verbs:
Person | Hablar |
---|---|
yo | hable |
tú | hables |
él/ella/usted | hable |
nosotros/nosotras | hablemos |
vosotros/vosotras | habléis |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablen |
Example Sentence:
- Espero que hables con él. (I hope you talk to him.)
Imperfect Subjunctive (Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)
Used for past actions that are uncertain, hypothetical, or subjective. It appears in “if” clauses and expressions of wishing or doubting about the past.
There are two conjugation forms for the imperfect subjunctive:
Person | Hablar |
---|---|
yo | hablara / hablase |
tú | hablaras / hablases |
él/ella/usted | hablara / hablase |
nosotros/nosotras | habláramos / hablásemos |
vosotros/vosotras | hablarais / hablaseis |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablaran / hablasen |
Example Sentence:
- Si hablaras más, entenderías mejor. (If you spoke more, you would understand better.)
Present Perfect Subjunctive (Pretérito Perfecto de Subjuntivo)
Used for actions that are viewed as completed but are uncertain or subjective, often about recent past or actions affecting the present.
You form the present perfect subjunctive with haber + past participle:
Person | Hablar |
---|---|
yo | haya hablado |
tú | hayas hablado |
él/ella/usted | haya hablado |
nosotros/nosotras | hayamos hablado |
vosotros/vosotras | hayáis hablado |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hayan hablado |
Example Sentence:
- Dudo que hayas hablado con él. (I doubt that you have talked to him.)
Past Perfect Subjunctive (Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo)
Used for hypothetical situations in the past, unreal past conditions, and past actions that precede other past actions.
Person | Hablar |
---|---|
yo | hubiera/hubiese hablado |
tú | hubieras/hubieses hablado |
él/ella/usted | hubiera/hubiese hablado |
nosotros/nosotras | hubiéramos/hubiésemos hablado |
vosotros/vosotras | hubierais/hubieseis hablado |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hubieran/hubiesen hablado |
Example Sentence:
- Si hubieras hablado con él, lo sabrías. (If you had talked to him, you would know.)
Future Subjunctive (Futuro de Subjuntivo)
The future subjunctive is an archaic form in Spanish and is rarely used in written Spanish or spoken Spanish.
It still has its use cases in legal documents, sometimes in contemporary literature, and in historical texts. Modern Spanish typically uses an altered version of the present subjunctive to talk about future tenses.
However, for the sake of completeness, here is the conjugation of the verb “hablar” in the future subjunctive:
Person | Hablar |
---|---|
yo | hablare |
tú | hablares |
él/ella/usted | hablare |
nosotros/nosotras | habláremos |
vosotros/vosotras | hablareis |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablaren |
An example sentence in legal context:
- El que hablare en la asamblea sin permiso será sancionado. (He who speaks in the assembly without permission will be sanctioned.)
7. Practice the Spanish subjunctive with our Full Practice Worksheet Library
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the Spanish subjunctive!
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8. Ultimate Guide to Spanish Subjunctive with Conversation Based Chunking
You’re in a lucky spot now. After reading through this blog post, you know the basics about the subjunctive in Spanish. There are two ways to go from here: you either learn all of this by heart, and then you’ll have to think all the time about the grammar rules and definitions when engaging in real conversations…
OR…
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