Subjunctive in the Present

I thought that before I get too far along with when and how to use the subjunctive, I would spend a little bit of time on how to form the subjunctive. I'll start with the present indicative tense.

A great way to think of forming the Spanish subjunctive is imagine a place where right-side-up is up-side-down and right is left and up is down -- everything is the opposite. That's basically what you are doing with your subject endings.

For verbs that end in -AR, you want to first conjugate the verb in first person (Yo form), then add the appropriate opposite ending for the subject you are using.

Example:  bailar (to dance)

First person present tense (Yo form): bailo

Remove the -o ending and add the appropriate opposite subject ending:

Yo	-e	Nosotros, Nosotras	-emos
Tú	-es	Vosotros, Vosotras	-éis
El, Ella, Vd.	-e	Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	-en

Subjunctive conjugation: baile, bailes, baile, bailemos, bailéis, bailen

Both -ER and -IR verbs use the same endings and like the above -AR verbs, also conjugate in the first person (Yo form), drop the -o ending and add the subjunctive ending as follows.

Examples:  comer (to eat)  vivir (to live)

First person present tense (Yo form): como  vivo

Remove the -o ending and add the appropriate opposite subject ending:

Yo	-a	Nosotros, Nosotras	-amos
Tú	-as	Vosotros, Vosotras	-áis
El, Ella, Vd.	-a	Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	-an

Subjunctive conjugation for comer: coma, comas, coma, comamos, comáis, coman

Subjunctive conjugation for vivir: viva, vivas, viva, vivamos, viváis, vivan

The subjunctive for irregular verbs are done pretty much the same way as above. First conjugate the verb paying attention to any stem changes in the verb or unusual stem spelling changes when conjugating them. Then remove the -o ending and replace it with the opposite subject ending you want to use in the above charts for -AR, -ER or -IR verbs. Remember that stem-changing verbs do not change spelling in the Nosotros, Nosotras, Vosotros, or Vosotras forms.

Examples:

recomendar (to recommend)
Yo recomiende	Nosotros, Nosotras recomendemos
Tú recomiendes	Vosotros, Vosotras recomendéis
El, Ella, Vd. recomiende	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. recomienden

recordar (to remember)
Yo recuerde	Nosotros, Nosotras recordemos
Tú recuerdes	Vosotros, Vosotras recordéis
El, Ella, Vd. recuerde	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. recuerden

entender (to understand)
Yo entienda	Nosotros, Nosotras entendamos
Tú entiendas	Vosotros, Vosotras entendáis
El, Ella, Vd. entienda	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. entiendan

devolver (to return (something))
Yo devuelva	Nosotros, Nosotras devolvamos
Tú devuelvas	Vosotros, Vosotras devolváis
El, Ella, Vd. devuelva	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. devuelvan

Now for -IR irregular verbs in the Nosotros, Nosotras, Vosotros, and Vosotras forms, the letter 'e' in the stem of the verb will change to the letter 'i' and the letter 'o' will change to the letter 'u.' Take a look at these examples:

mentir (to lie)
Yo mienta	Nosotros, Nosotras mintamos
Tú mientas	Vosotros, Vosotras mintáis
El, Ella, Vd. mienta	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. mientan

dormir (to sleep)
Yo duerma	Nosotros, Nosotras durmamos
Tú duermas	Vosotros, Vosotras durmáis
El, Ella, Vd. duerma	Ellos, Ellas, Vds. duerman

Last, but not by any means least, we have true irregular subjunctive verbs. They are irregular because they don't follow any of the above "rules" when forming the subjunctive. Here they are:

	dar (to give)	estar (to be)	ir (to go)	saber (to know)
Yo	dé	esté	vaya	sepa
Tú	des	estés	vayas	sepas
El, Ella, Vd.	dé	esté	vaya	sepa
Nosotros, Nosotras	demos	estemos	vayamos	sepamos
Vosotros, Vosotras	deis	estéis	vayáis	sepáis
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	den	estén	vayan	sepan

. . . and some more!

	ser (to be)	ver (to see)
Yo	sea	vea
Tú	seas	veas
El, Ella, Vd.	sea	vea
Nosotros, Nosotras	seamos	veamos
Vosotros, Vosotras	seáis	veáis
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.	sean	vean

SPECIAL ATTENTION: Remember hay (there is/there are)? Well in the subjunctive, it becomes haya. Simple, right? Here's an example of when this form is used in Spanish:

English: I hope that there are guys at the party.

Spanish: Espero que haya hombres a la fiesta.

I recommend bookmarking or marking this blog post as a favorite and referring to it later on as we continue with the subjunctive.

Please note that the above verbs are not the only verbs using the subjunctive or are irregular, but rather these verbs may be used as a model of forming verbs of a similar nature. Right now, I just want to make sure you are a bit comfortable seeing the subjunctive visually as it is a bit different.

¡Hasta luego!

~Keith