<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <body> <!--fixups:2460--><h2>Comparison of conjugation: present indicative vs present subjunctive</h2> <p>You have learned the INDICATIVE mood since your first verb conjugation in Spanish. If we look at the present indicative tense, we have certain verb endings for -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs. There are also irregular verbs and stem-changing verbs.</p> <p>Present subjunctive does pretty much the same thing, including all those irregularities, but the endings use the opposite vowel as you'd expect.</p> <p>Here's what I mean using two simple, regular verbs: hablar and aprender.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">PRESENT INDICATIVE = Yo habl<strong>o</strong>, Tú habl<strong>as</strong>, Él habl<strong>a</strong>, Nosotros habl<strong>amos</strong>, Ellos habl<strong>an</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE = que yo habl<strong>e</strong>, que tú habl<strong>es</strong>, que él habl<strong>e</strong>, que nosotros habl<strong>emos</strong>, que ellos habl<strong>en</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 80.0px;">Notice our -AR verb is taking endings that use an E. This is "opposite" to what we're used to!</p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">PRESENT INDICATIVE = Yo aprend<strong>o</strong>, tú aprend<strong>es</strong>, él aprend<strong>e</strong>, nosotros aprend<strong>emos</strong>, ellos aprend<strong>en</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE = que yo aprend<strong>a</strong>, que tú aprend<strong>as</strong>, que él aprend<strong>a</strong>, que nosotros aprend<strong>amos</strong>, que ellos aprend<strong>an</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 80.0px;">Now, our -ER verb is taking endings that use an A. The -IR verbs take these same endings.</p> <h2>Steps to conjugate PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE</h2> <p>1. Make the YO form of the present indicate: ESTUDIO</p> <p>2. Take off the -O: ESTUDI-</p> <p>3. Add the "opposite" ending: que tú ESTUDIES</p> <p>Any irregularities that happen in the YO form of present tense will carry through to the present subjunctive. This would mean any stem-changes or changes in the yo form.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">PENSAR (e-ie): que yo piense, que tú pienses, que él piense, que nosotros pensemos, que ellos piensen</p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;">CONOCER: que yo conozca, que tú conozcas, que él conozca, que nosotros conozcamos, que ellos conozcan</p> <p style="margin-left: 40.0px;"><img alt="important icon" height="106" src="../important icon SU20.png" style="padding: 10.0px;float: left;" width="94" /></p> <p><br /> You may be asking, <strong>why did I write "que" before all those subjunctive conjugations?</strong> This is because subjunctive does not stand alone in a sentence (with a few exceptions). A subjunctive verb will usually have the word que before it to separate the main and subordinate clause in the sentence. Next week we will delve into the larger structure of sentences which use subjunctive and why they do what they do, but for now, I just want to review the actual conjugation of forms.</p> </body> </html>