Subjuntivo: más usos
Last lesson the subjunctive arrived because a person wanted, felt or doubted something. Today it arrives because of a word: cuando pointing at something that has not happened yet, para que and antes de que, which never take anything else, aunque when it means 'even if', and the que of a thing you are still hunting for. One more family closes the set — the impersonal es necesario que, es mejor que, es raro que. Nothing new to build: the forms are the flip you already know. What is new is the fork, and it is the same fork every time — a fact you can point at goes indicativo, everything else goes subjuntivo.
cuando, and the events still ahead
The first family is time. cuando, en cuanto, apenas, hasta que, mientras, cada vez que — when the event they introduce is still ahead of the speaker, the verb goes subjunctive. Cuando encuentre un departamento, te llamo. En cuanto salga del trabajo, voy para allá. Hasta que llegue Matías, no empezamos. Now turn the same conjunction toward a habit or toward something already finished, and the indicative comes straight back, because nothing is being supposed any more: Cuando llego a la casa, tomo un cafecito is every day of my life, and Cuando llegué, mi hermana ya estaba en la cocina is a Tuesday that is over. English hides all of this — 'when I get home' covers both — so the question is never what the English looks like but whether the event has happened. And one prohibition carries over from the si lesson: the futuro never stands behind cuando either. Cuando llegaré is not a sentence. The future lives in the other half — Cuando llegue, te llamaré — and cuando keeps the subjunctive.
para que, sin que: two subjects, one purpose
para que takes the subjunctive one hundred percent of the time, and the reason is the hinge from last lesson. para que exists precisely because there are two people in the sentence: I do something so that YOU end up somewhere. Te llamo para que sepas la hora. Te presto la llave para que veas el departamento hoy. When there is only one person, Spanish drops the que and the subjunctive together and uses para plus a plain infinitive: Estudio para ser profe. Salí temprano para llegar a tiempo. Getting this wrong in either direction is the classic B1 slip — para que ser profe and Te llamo para saber tú la hora are both broken. sin que works identically: Entró sin que nadie lo viera, against the single-subject Salió sin decir nada. Notice what happened to that verb: the main clause was in the past, so the subjunctive moved back to the imperfecto de subjuntivo you built out of the pretérito two lessons ago. Present main clause takes vea, past main clause takes viera. The formal cousin a fin de que follows the same rule and shows up in writing and in speeches.
antes de que never bends
antes de que is the easiest rule in the lesson: it takes the subjunctive always, in every tense, with no exceptions worth remembering. Antes de que empiece el invierno, quiero un departamento con calefacción. Llegamos antes de que empezara a llover. Even that second one, describing something finished and certain, keeps the subjunctive — the logic is that the moment being named had not arrived yet when the action happened. Same subject, same shortcut as before: antes de plus infinitive, no que. Antes de salir, tomo un café. Its mirror image después de que is the one that splits, and it splits by the rule you already have: still ahead → subjunctive, Después de que veas el departamento, hablamos; already done → indicative, Después de que llegué, empezó a llover. The same applies to hasta que and mientras. Only antes de que and para que are absolute, and that is exactly why they are worth memorising as fixed units, sound and all.
aunque: even though, or even if
aunque is two different words wearing one coat, and the mood is what tells them apart. With the indicative it means 'even though', and the fact is out in the open, known to both of you: Aunque el departamento es caro, me gusta. I have seen the price; I am conceding a fact. With the subjunctive it means 'even if', and you are supposing: Aunque sea caro, lo voy a tomar — the price is still unknown, and I am telling you it will not stop me. One conjunction, two different conversations. There is a third case, subtler and very common in speech: the fact IS known, but the speaker refuses to give it any weight, and the subjunctive marks that refusal — Aunque no tenga calefacción, ese departamento me gusta. The rule of thumb that survives contact with real Spanish: if you are announcing news, use the indicative; if you are waving something aside, use the subjunctive. Two relatives behave the same way: por más que and por mucho que, as in Por más que busque, no encuentro nada barato. And keep aunque apart from aún, with an accent, which means 'still' and is not related.
Hunting for something that may not exist
This one has nothing to do with conjunctions. When you describe a thing you already have, the description is a fact and stays indicative: Vivo en un departamento que tiene calefacción. When you describe a thing you are still looking for, the thing may not exist at all, and Spanish marks that with the subjunctive: Busco un departamento que tenga calefacción. Any easy one, any one at all — Quiero un libro que sea fácil, Necesito a alguien que hable inglés. Two details make this look harder than it is. First, the personal a tends to drop when the person is a description rather than a person: Busco una profe que hable inglés against Conozco a una profe que habla inglés — but alguien and nadie always keep their a: No conozco a nadie que viva en el centro. Second, a thing that does not exist is the extreme case of the same rule, so negatives always take the subjunctive: No hay nadie que tenga tanta paciencia. No hay nada que hacer. Living inside this pattern is a set of phrases worth stealing whole: lo que quieras, donde quieras, cuando quieras, como quieras — whatever, wherever, whenever, however you like.
Es necesario que — judging instead of reporting
The last family is impersonal: es plus an evaluation plus que. es necesario que, es importante que, es mejor que, es raro que, es bueno que, es difícil que, es una lástima que, puede ser que — all subjunctive, because none of them reports a fact; they weigh one. Es necesario que tengas paciencia. Es mejor que veas el departamento en la mañana. Es raro que no llame. If no particular person is named, the que disappears and an infinitive does the job: Es necesario tener paciencia. Es mejor no decir nada. Then comes the group that breaks the pattern, and it breaks it for a reason: es verdad que, es cierto que, es obvio que, está claro que, se nota que do not judge anything — they assert that something is so, and asserting is what the indicative is for. Es verdad que el centro es caro. Put a no in front of any of them and the assertion collapses, so the subjunctive comes back: No es verdad que el centro sea caro. It is the same flip creer made last lesson, and it will keep happening all the way to C1.
One question sorts all six
Six triggers in one lesson sounds like six rules to memorise, and it is not — it is one question asked six times. Can you point at it, name it, swear to it? Then indicativo. Is it still ahead of you, still supposed, still being hunted for, or being judged rather than reported? Then subjuntivo. Listen to the fork in a single exchange: —¿Conoces a alguien que viva cerca del centro? —Sí, conozco a Marisol, que vive en el centro. The same verb, twice, one letter apart. viva while the person is only a description in the air; vive the second she has a name and an address. Try it on the others and it holds: cuando llego is a habit I can vouch for, cuando llegue is a Tuesday that has not arrived; aunque es caro is a price I have seen, aunque sea caro is a price I am guessing at. You will not always get it right at speed, and native speakers will understand you either way. But the moment you hear the difference between hable and habla in someone else's sentence, you have most of the remaining Spanish grammar in your hands.
Words for a departamento hunt
el departamento is the apartment in Mexico, Chile, Peru and the Southern Cone; Colombia, Venezuela and Central America say el apartamento. Both are understood everywhere, and both get clipped in speech — el depa, el apto. What you must not do is call your home el piso: across Latin America el piso is the floor under your feet or the storey of a building, nothing else. el centro is downtown, the old middle of the city, and el centro comercial is the mall. caro and barato take ser for what something is like and estar for what the price is doing lately: Ese departamento es caro against El pescado está caro esta semana. la ventana is the window in a wall; a shop window is la vitrina, and a big picture window is un ventanal. cómodo covers furniture, clothes and situations alike — un sillón cómodo, No me siento cómodo acá — and la cómoda, as a noun, is a chest of drawers. la calefacción is central heating, which much of the region simply does not have; a portable heater is el calentador, or la estufa in Chile and Argentina — the same word that means kitchen stove in Mexico. la paciencia shows up as advice constantly: Ten paciencia, or Tenga paciencia to someone you address as usted. raro means strange far more often than rare, and Qué raro is the everyday 'how odd'; for rare as in scarce, say poco común. And nadie keeps the double negative when it follows the verb — No hay nadie, No conozco a nadie — but stands alone when it comes first: Nadie vino.
