Spanish Present Subjunctive

One use of the subjunctive mood is to persuade someone to do something. If you were to call a friend only to discover that he is out, you might ask whoever answered the phone to take a message. In Spanish, such a sentence requires use of the subjunctive mood.

For example:

• Dile que me devuelva mi libro mañana.
  Tell him to return my book to me tomorrow.

• Sí señor, dígale por favor que lleve mi disco de los Ilegales a la escuela mañana.
  Yes sir, please tell him to bring my Ilegales CD to school tomorrow.

Notice that in each example the speaker is asking someone to do something. If the speaker were simply giving information then the subjunctive mood would not be used. The formation of these sentences of persuasion follows this pattern:

Persuasion verb + que + verb in subjunctive form

To form the present subjunctive you simply take the first person indicative form (e.g. hablo) and, with -ar verbs, change the -o ending to -e. For -er and -ir verbs, change the -o to -a.

hablar   hablo   hable
comer    como    coma
vivir    vivo    viva 

To make the other forms of the present subjunctive you simply add the same endings (-s, -mos, -is, -n) as you used in the present indicative.

hablar

hable (example sentences)     hablemos (example sentences)
hables (example sentences)    habléis (example sentences)
hable (example sentences)     hablen (example sentences)

comer

coma (example sentences)    comamos (example sentences)
comas (example sentences)    comáis (example sentences)
coma (example sentences)     coman (example sentences)

vivir

viva (example sentences)     vivamos (example sentences)
vivas (example sentences)    viváis (example sentences)
viva (example sentences)     vivan (example sentences)

For -ar and -er stem-changing verbs, the pattern remains the same as it is for the present indicative: all forms change except nosotros and vosotros.

For example:

pida (example sentences)     pidamos (example sentences)
pidas (example sentences)    pidáis (example sentences)
pida (example sentences)     pidan (example sentences)

muera (example sentences)     muramos (example sentences)
mueras (example sentences)    muráis (example sentences)
muera (example sentences      mueran (example sentences) 

Most verbs that have irregular stems in the first person singular of the present indicative will keep that irregularity in all forms of the present subjunctive:

decir

diga (example sentences)      digamos (example sentences)
digas (example sentences)     digáis (example sentences)
diga (example sentences)      digan(example sentences)

conocer

conozca (example sentences)    conozcamos (example sentences)
conozcas (example sentences)   conozcáis (example sentences)
conozca (example sentences)    conozcan (example sentences) 

Finally, there are some verbs whose first person singular present indicative from does not end in -o. These verbs have the following present subjunctive form:

dar

dé (example sentences)     demos(example sentences)
des (example sentences)    deis (example sentences)
dé (example sentences)     den (example sentences)

estar

esté (example sentences)    estemos (example sentences)
estés (example sentences)   estéis (example sentences)
esté (example sentences)    estén (example sentences)

ir

vaya (example sentences)     vayamos (example sentences)
vayas (example sentences)    vayáis (example sentences)
vaya (example sentences)     vayan (example sentences)

saber

sepa (example sentences)     sepamos (example sentences)
sepas (example sentences)    sepáis (example sentences)
sepa (example sentences)     sepan (example sentences)

ser

sea (example sentences)      seamos (example sentences)
seas (example sentences)     seáis (example sentences)
sea (example sentences)      sean (example sentences)

Now, let's look at some other examples of persuasion:

• Juan quiere que vayamos a su casa.
  Juan wants us to go to his house.

• Prefiero que me traigan su tarea al final de la clase.
  I prefer that you bring me your homework at the end of class.

Subjunctive Mood