Indicativo o subjuntivo: el repaso general
Nineteen lessons ago the subjunctive was a new set of endings. By now the endings are the easy part, and the real skill is a choice you make several times a sentence without stopping to think. Here is the whole system in one line: the indicativo asserts, and the subjuntivo does everything this language does when it is not asserting — wanting, doubting, judging, supposing, hunting for something that may not exist yet. Not a list of triggers to memorize. One question, asked over and over: at the moment the words leave your mouth, can you vouch for it? Creo que viene is a bet you are willing to place. No creo que venga is not. Today we walk the places where that fork shows up, so that by the end you hear the difference instead of calculating it.
creer, saber, es verdad — and what a no does to them
creer, pensar, saber, parecer, es verdad que, está claro que, se nota que — in the affirmative every one of them is a way of asserting something, so every one of them takes the indicativo: Creo que el trabajo tiene sentido. Sé que me van a apoyar. Es verdad que el sector paga bien. Put a no in front and the assertion evaporates, and the verb behind que flips with it: No creo que el trabajo tenga sentido. No es verdad que el sector pague bien. What feels strange coming from English is where the doubt gets marked. English says 'I don't think it makes sense' and leaves 'makes' alone; Spanish moves the whole weight of the doubt onto the second verb. Questions sit in between, and both moods are grammatical there with a real difference in tone: ¿Crees que viene? is a neutral request for information, and ¿Crees que venga? is already leaning toward no. Two details worth carrying out of this section. saber in the negative usually reaches for si and the indicative instead — No sé si viene — and no creo que is the most common subjunctive in ordinary conversation. If you build one automatic reflex out of this whole lesson, make it that one.
Doubt on a sliding scale: quizá, capaz que, a lo mejor
The maybe words are not interchangeable, and the mood is the dial that measures how much doubt there is. quizá, quizás, tal vez and posiblemente take the subjuntivo by default — Tal vez cambie de trabajo — but allow the indicative when the speaker is fairly confident: Tal vez cambia de trabajo, ya lo decidió. puede que and es posible que are absolute, subjunctive always: Es posible que tengas razón. Then comes the one that breaks the pattern in the other direction. a lo mejor takes the indicativo and only the indicativo, everywhere in the region: A lo mejor viene mañana. It is colloquial, it is everywhere, and it is the cheapest way to say maybe without conjugating anything new. Latin America adds two of its own. capaz que is the everyday maybe from Mexico to Argentina — Capaz que llueve, Capaz que no venga — and it genuinely takes both moods depending on the country and on how sure the speaker feels. And in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador you will hear de repente used for maybe rather than suddenly: De repente nos vemos el sábado. None of these change the grammar you already have; they just let you choose how much you are committing to.
Wanting, feeling, judging: the hinge is two subjects
This family never wavers. If the main clause wants, asks, orders, fears, celebrates or evaluates, the clause behind que is subjunctive. Wanting and influencing: querer que, pedir que, necesitar que, and decir que when it means telling someone to do something — Me dijo que llegara temprano is an instruction, while Me dijo que llegó temprano is a report, and the mood is the only thing separating them. Feeling: me alegra que, me da pena que, qué bueno que, temo que. Judging from outside: es importante que, es mejor que, es raro que, vale la pena que. What decides whether any of this machinery appears at all is the number of subjects. Two people, two verbs, que in the middle: Quiero que respeten mi decisión. One person doing both things: no que, no subjunctive, just an infinitive — Quiero respetar tu decisión. Quiero que yo respete is not something anyone says. The same hinge runs through the impersonal ones: Es importante estudiar is advice to the world in general, Es importante que estudies is advice aimed at you.
cuando, and whether it has happened yet
cuando, en cuanto, apenas, hasta que, mientras, después de que, cada vez que — two moods each, and the question is always the same: has the event happened, or is it still ahead? Still ahead → subjuntivo: Cuando me acostumbre al horario, voy a estar mejor. En cuanto salga del trabajo, te llamo. Habit or finished past → indicativo: Cuando llego a la casa, salgo al balcón un rato is every evening of my life, and Cuando llegué, mi mamá ya estaba ahí is one Tuesday that is over. Notice which past that second one is. Across Latin America a finished event takes the pretérito, so it is Cuando llegué and not cuando he llegado. English gives you no help whatsoever here — 'when I get home' covers both — so the only reliable move is to ask yourself whether you are describing something you have lived or something you are still waiting for. And the old prohibition holds: the futuro never stands behind cuando. Cuando llegaré is broken. The future belongs in the other half of the sentence — Cuando llegue, te llamaré.
The one you have, the one you are hunting for
After a noun, que introduces a description, and the mood says whether the thing being described exists yet. It exists and you could point at it → indicativo: Vivo en un departamento que tiene balcón. Tengo una amiga que trabaja en el sector tecnológico. You are still looking and anything that fits will do → subjuntivo: Busco un departamento que tenga balcón. Necesito un trabajo que tenga sentido. The English is identical in both; the Spanish is one letter apart. A thing that does not exist at all is the extreme case of the same rule, so negatives go subjunctive too: No hay nadie que entienda esto. No conozco a nadie que trabaje ahí. Two mechanical details ride along. The personal a tends to drop when the person is still only a description — Busco una abogada que hable inglés — and comes back the moment the person is real: Conozco a una abogada que habla inglés. But alguien and nadie always keep it: ¿Conoces a alguien que maneje? And living inside this same pattern is a family of set phrases worth stealing whole: lo que quieras, donde quieras, cuando quieras, como puedas.
The absolutes, and aunque, which splits in two
Four conjunctions never take anything but the subjunctive, and they are best memorized as sounds rather than as rules: para que, antes de que, sin que, a menos que. Te lo digo para que lo entiendas. Quiero decidirlo antes de que empiece el año. Se fue sin que nadie lo viera. No voy a firmar a menos que lo lea primero. All four have a same-subject shortcut that drops the que and the subjunctive together: Salí temprano para llegar a tiempo, Antes de decidir, lo pensé una semana. Then there is aunque, which is two different words sharing one spelling. With the indicativo it concedes a fact you both already know: Aunque el sueldo es bajo, me quedo — I have seen the number. With the subjuntivo it supposes, or else it knows the fact and waves it aside as irrelevant: Aunque el sueldo sea bajo, me quedo. The same split runs through por más que and por mucho que — Por más que le explico, no entiende against Por más que le explique, no va a entender — and el hecho de que, literally 'the fact that', takes the subjunctive anyway, because naming a fact is still not the same as asserting it: El hecho de que no me apoyen no cambia nada.
When the main verb steps back into the past
Everything above was written with a present main verb. Move that main verb into the past and the subjunctive moves with it, from presente to imperfecto — the -ra forms, which are the default across the region: hablara, tuviera, fuera, apoyara. Quiero que me apoyen becomes Quería que me apoyaran; Le pido que respete mi decisión becomes Le pedí que respetara mi decisión. Notice what triggers the shift: the tense of the main clause, not any change in meaning. It works the same on every family in this lesson. No creo que venga → No creía que viniera. Busco algo que tenga sentido → Buscaba algo que tuviera sentido. Aunque sea difícil, lo hago → Aunque fuera difícil, lo hice. Two habits of this variety matter here. The main clause normally shows up in the pretérito rather than the perfect — Le pedí, not le he pedido — and the -se forms you will meet in older books, hablase and tuviese, are understood everywhere and used almost nowhere in Latin American speech. Read them; do not write them.
Can you vouch for it?
Six families, one question. At the moment you say it, can you point at the thing, name it, swear to it? Then indicativo. Is it a wish, a doubt, a judgement, something still ahead of you, something you are still hunting for, something you are conceding rather than reporting? Then subjuntivo. Hear the fork inside one exchange: —¿Conoces a alguien que trabaje en el sector tecnológico? —Sí, conozco a Valeria, que trabaja en una empresa de allá. The same verb twice, one letter apart. trabaje while the person is only a description floating in the air; trabaja the second she has a name and an office. You will not get it right at speed every time, and nobody will misunderstand you when you miss. But the choice is not decoration — it is where this language keeps the difference between what is and what is only wanted, and the day you hear entienda land where you were expecting entiende, you are reading Spanish the way it was written.
