More Help for Understanding the Subjunctive in Spanish

Hello again. A couple of weeks ago, we were learning some tricks that can help Spanish students to avoid the stress of the subjunctive, taking an approach that is very rarely adopted by teachers of a foreign language. If you cast your mind back to the last article, we focused on the morphology of the present subjunctive in courteous forms of the imperative (and in the negative imperative). 

The Concept of the Subjuntive

Today however, we’re going to talk about a couple more things, starting with a general mnemonic for learning the concept of the subjunctive in contrast to the indicative as complimentary modes in Spanish. Then we’ll get into the morphology of the imperfect subjunctive with a “magic spell” that tends to stick in the minds of students (possibly because it’s so ridiculous).

Let’s start at the beginning…: If you want to engage your class in a group discussion on the subjunctive and its significance in Spanish, you can start by writing the following two key words on the board: Indicative and Subjunctive (here’s where the dance of the two modes begins). Keeping in mind what we talked about a couple of weeks ago (regarding the morphology and the basic functions of the present subjunctive) you can present the following idea to your class…

What do you call the finger next to the thumb? Index, of course. And what do you use it for? To indicate. Indication is something that can be done in conjunction with objects, situations or real people; not ideas, projects or possibilities… So we can deduce that the Indicative (whose name resembles the word indicate) is used to describe or to report upon reality. Reality is something objective; it’s not dependent on the speaker’s viewpoint. It is what it is.

So then, what is the opposite of the objective? The subjective, of course (the fact that this word is almost identical in most western languages helps a lot). Then we can deduce that the subjunctive is used to speak about subjectivity. So the whole series of uses that we looked at that form the basis of the present subjunctive is really just a succession of subjective ideas. The expression of a desire is personal and subjective – the idea of a probability (es probable que…), what we do not like (no me gusta que hagas…), the orders we give (te pido que…) – the subjunctive would need to be used in all these cases.

In this way, we can give our students a sort of overview that lets them see the “whole” without focusing on any specific point. Obviously, this is not a solution to students’ problems of usage and understanding, however it can be useful as a general approach; and it helps avoid the initial rejection that often exists when students are first faced with this tense which may not translate well in their native languages.

Well that’s all we have time for today… even though we haven’t gotten round to the “magic spell” for the imperfect subjunctive and its use!

See you soon.