10 El Presente de Subjuntivo / The Present Subjunctive (Ame)

El Presente de Subjuntivo / The Present Subjunctive (Ame)

The Present Subjunctive is a tense that is used to express feelings, influence, doubt or uncertainty. It is used in sentences such as “it’s possible that he’ll come to the party”.

The following table shows how to conjugate regular verbs in the Present Subjunctive.

When conjugating verbs in this tense, instead of just taking the ar / er / ir ending off from the infinitive, you use the yo form of the verb in the Present Tense. You take the o off of this form, and add the subjunctive endings. This step is highlighted in green in the table above.

Because of this rule, radical changing verbs in the Present Tense keep their radical change in the Present Subjunctive. The following table shows the radical changing verb querer in the Present Tense, and then in the Present Subjunctive.

Notice that there is no radical change in the nosotros / nosotras and vosotros / vosotras verb forms, in both tenses.

Any other irregularities in the yo form of the Present Tense are carried through to the Present Subjunctive.

The radical changing verb jugar  follows the same pattern as the radical changing verbs above, but it also has one extra irregularity. The letters highlighted in orange are the radical change, carried over from the yo form juego in the Present Tense. The u highlighted in green is added for pronunciation purposes – without it, the g sound would be pronounced like a j in Spanish.

Many other verbs get an extra u before the Subjunctive ending. These include llegar, pagar, negar, and castigar. Both radical and non-radical changing verbs can take this extra u.

There are several verbs which are completely irregular in the Present Subjunctive. The following tables show some of the most common ones.

Reflexive Verbs and the Present Subjunctive

In the Present Subjunctive, the reflexive pronoun (se) goes before the main verb as a separate word, and the main verb is conjugated according to the rules of the Present Subjunctive above. The following table shows the reflexive verb lavarse (to wash oneself) in the Present Subjunctive.