The Spanish Subjunctive: One Mood, Three Places, Four Tenses

The Spanish subjunctive is why these two sentences mean different things: Dice que vienes (she says you’re coming) and Dice que vengas (she says to come). Same verb, same person, one vowel apart. The first reports a fact. The second passes on an order.

That one vowel is the whole idea behind the subjunctive. This page is the map: what the subjunctive means, the three places it shows up, the test for when it doesn’t, and how its four tenses fit together. The forms themselves, like hable, tenga and vaya, are in the present subjunctive lesson.

What the Spanish subjunctive is: a mood, not a tense

A tense tells you when something happens. A mood tells you how the speaker presents it. Spanish verbs carry both at once, and Spanish has three moods:

The indicative presents something as a fact: viene mañana. Its partner marks what is wanted, doubted, judged or not real yet: quiero que venga mañana. The Real Academia Española describes mood as the speaker’s attitude toward what they say, and the choice depends on whether something is presented as known, wished for, denied and so on (Nueva gramática, §25.1c–d). Spanish grammars call it the modo subjuntivo.

English still has traces of it, so the idea isn’t foreign. “If I were you” uses were, not was. “I suggest that he be on time” uses be, not is. In both, the verb changes because the sentence isn’t stating a fact. Spanish just does this far more often.

Spanish subjunctive rules: the three places it shows up

Using the subjunctive in Spanish comes down to one question: is the speaker stating this as real? When the answer is no, the subjunctive appears, and it appears in three kinds of places:

Where	Typical openers	Example
After verbs and phrases of wanting, feeling, doubting or judging	quiero que, prefiero que, qué pena que, dudo que, es raro que	Mi madre prefiere que cenemos en casa.
After certain conjunctions	always: para que, antes de que, sin que, a menos que · sometimes: cuando, aunque, hasta que	Espérame aquí hasta que vuelva.
Describing something unknown or that doesn’t exist	busco… que, no hay nadie que	Busco un departamento que tenga terraza.

The three places for the subjunctive. The second clause usually starts with que or a conjunction.

The “sometimes” conjunctions follow the same question. Cuando, aunque and hasta que take the indicative for something real or already happened, and the subjunctive for something that hasn’t happened yet or is only possible.

Sometimes there’s no main verb at all. Ojalá (I hope) always takes it: Ojalá haga sol. Quizás and tal vez (maybe) take either mood, depending on how unsure you are. You may have met the acronym WEIRDO (Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions, Recommendations, Doubt, Ojalá) for the first row of the table: a handy memory aid, as long as you remember the question underneath it.

The shape of a subjunctive sentence

Most subjunctive sentences have the same shape: one subject in the main clause, then que, then a different subject. If the subject doesn’t change, there’s no que and no subjunctive, just the infinitive:

English hides this, because “I want you to travel” uses an infinitive. That’s why English speakers say quiero tú viajar at first. Spanish needs the que and the change of verb.

When not to use it: the certainty test

Don’t reach for it just because a sentence sounds emotional or complicated. If the main clause presents something as true or certain, the verb after que stays in the indicative. Negate the certainty, and the subjunctive comes in:

Certain: indicative	Not certain: subjunctive
Es verdad que hace frío.	No es verdad que haga frío.
Estoy segura de que viene.	No estoy segura de que venga.
Es obvio que tiene razón.	No es obvio que tenga razón.

The best-known pair of this kind, creo que against no creo que, is worked through with audio in the present subjunctive lesson.

Same sentence, different mood, different meaning

The pair at the top of this page isn’t a one-off. In each of these Spanish subjunctive examples, the words stay the same and only the mood changes, and the meaning changes with it:

Look at the English. “Even though it’s raining” and “even if it rains” are two different sentences in English too; Spanish makes the same split with the verb alone. And with el que llegue primero, nobody knows yet who that person will be, so the subjunctive marks it as unknown.

The four Spanish subjunctive tenses

Four tenses are in everyday use. Each Spanish subjunctive tense pairs with a tense in the main clause, so you rarely choose among all four at once:

Tense	Spanish name	hablar	Looks at
Present	presente	hable	now or later
Present perfect	pretérito perfecto compuesto	haya hablado	something already done, seen from now
Imperfect	pretérito imperfecto	hablara (or hablase)	the past, or something unreal
Pluperfect	pretérito pluscuamperfecto	hubiera hablado (or hubiese hablado)	a past that didn’t happen

Vosotros, used only in Spain: habléis, hayáis hablado, hablarais, hubierais hablado.

Here is one sentence walking through all four:

The usual pairing works like this. A main verb in the present takes the present or the present perfect subjunctive. A main verb in the past takes the imperfect or the pluperfect: Quiero que vengas becomes Quería que vinieras.

The imperfect has two sets of endings, -ra and -se (hablara, hablase). The RAE says the two can be used interchangeably in most contexts. In Latin American speech, -ra is the one you’ll hear; -se shows up more in Spain and in writing.

How to build each one, in a line:

• Present: from the yo form of the present (tengo → tenga). The full method is in the present subjunctive lesson, and verb pages like ser, estar and ir have every form with audio.
• Imperfect: from the ellos form of the preterite (tuvieron → tuviera), as on the tener page. The subjunctive exercises include eight imperfect sentences.
• Present perfect and pluperfect: haya or hubiera plus a past participle, the same participles you use in the Spanish present perfect. The haber page lists them.

And the future subjunctive?

There’s a fifth form, the future subjunctive (hablare), but almost nobody uses it in conversation anymore. It survives in legal texts and old formulas. Mexico’s national anthem has one, osare, in Mas si osare un extraño enemigo. So does the proverb Adonde fueres, haz lo que vieres (when in Rome, do as the Romans do), with fueres and vieres. The RAE lists both as remnants of the future subjunctive (§24.3i). Recognize it; you don’t need to use it.

Spanish subjunctive examples from native speakers

All four speakers are Mexican, interviewed by Easy Spanish (the last one in Berlin). Each clip shows a different reason for the subjunctive:

Replay the clip1 of 4

1. Creo que sí es importante que no pase desapercibida la fecha de un cumpleaños, como si fuera cualquier otro día.I do think it's important for a birthday not to go unnoticed, as if it were any other day. · es importante que, como si · Easy Spanish · Mexico
2. …en algún tortillero para que no se sequen.…in a tortilla warmer so they don't dry out. · para que, always · Easy Spanish · Mexico City
3. Yo espero que se continúe la conversación.I hope the conversation keeps going. · a wish · Easy Spanish · Mexico
4. …que a lo mejor te hubiera gustado saber?…that maybe you would have liked to know? · pluperfect · Easy Spanish · Mexicans in Berlin

The first clip has almost this whole page in one breath. Creo que states an opinion as true, so it’s followed by the indicative (es importante). Es importante que is a judgment, so pase is subjunctive. And como si (as if) always takes the imperfect subjunctive: fuera. In the last clip, hubiera gustado means the same as habría gustado, “would have liked.”

Indicative or subjunctive? Try eight sentences

Apply the question from above to each one: is the speaker stating this as real?

For more, the Spanish subjunctive exercises have 28 sentences with audio, 20 in the present and 8 in the imperfect, plus a worksheet with answers. To drill the forms on their own, the present subjunctive drill gives you a verb and a person and checks what you type.

Frequently asked questions

Does English have a subjunctive?

Yes, a small one. “If I were you,” “I suggest that she be there” and “God save the King” all use it. English speakers rarely notice it because the forms look like ordinary verbs. Spanish uses its subjunctive in many more sentences, and the endings make it easy to hear.

What does WEIRDO stand for?

Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions (es importante que), Recommendations, Doubt and denial, and Ojalá. It lists the most common openers of the first kind of subjunctive sentence. It’s a memory aid, not the rule: the rule is that the speaker isn’t stating something as real.

Which subjunctive tense should I learn first?

The present. It covers most everyday sentences, and every other Spanish subjunctive tense builds on the same triggers. Using the subjunctive in Spanish starts with quiero que, ojalá and para que. Then the imperfect, which you need for the past and for “if” sentences. The two compound tenses come last; they’re haber plus a participle you already know.

Is the subjunctive used less in Latin America?

No. The system is the same in every country, and the rules above work everywhere. What changes is small: Latin America prefers -ra in the imperfect (hablara), and in the River Plate region vos has a few forms of its own, which the present subjunctive lesson explains.

Where to go next

The Spanish subjunctive rules above will tell you when you need it. To get the forms under control, go in this order:

1. The forms of the present. Start from the yo form and learn the six irregular verbs in the present subjunctive in Spanish.
2. The triggers, sentence by sentence. The subjunctive exercises put the most common openers in context, with audio and a worksheet.
3. The imperfect and “if” sentences. Si tuviera tiempo, iría pairs the imperfect subjunctive with the conditional, which you can start in the Spanish conditional tense.