Subjunctive and Imperative mood

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Last Updated: Saturday, 10 May 2025 02:44

Published: Sunday, 10 March 2024 17:00

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Subjunctive and Imperative Moods

Both Subjunctive and Imperative mood are put in same section, as they follow almost the same conjugation rules. As discussed in verb section, they have various tenses or types. Moods are a totally new concept in Spanish, as there is no such equivalent in English. We always use the same verb in English, whether it's happening or we wish that it happened OR if we were ordering someone to do something. But in Spanish, we have to conjugate these differently. It's ok if you get these mood conjugation wrong, as the meaning will still be conveyed across. So, moods are an advanced concept, and don't really affect your spanish speaking or comprehension.

Subjunctive Mood of Verbs used for wishes: We use these mood of verbs for expressing emotions, desires, and possibilities. It expresses hypothetical, vague or unverified information. It s called subjunctive as it indicates subjectivity of the fact from the viewpoint of the speaker. It is often used in subordinate clauses that follow a main statement. Ex: I wish that it would rain today => Here main clause is "I wish", while subordinate clause is "it would rain today".

One way to memorize what the subjunctive covers is to use the acronym WEIRDO:

• WEIRDO: => This gives the 6 circumstances where Subjunctive mood is used. The main clause of the sentence contains this "WEIRDO" verb, while the next clause has the Subjunctive conjugation of verb. It may be difficult sometimes to know if we should use subjunctive mood or not. Use the "speaker viewpoint" to see if the speaker believes it to be true or it implies WEIRDO from speaker's viewpoint => If so, it's subjunctive.
  
  1. Wishes: ex: I hope he arrives early. ex: We want you to cook dinner.
  2. Emotions/Expressions: ex: I'm really happy you are here.
  3. Impersonal expressions: ex: It's necessary that we have a license before driving.
  4. Recommendations/Requests: ex: I recommend you read that book. ex: She needs to do your homework
  5. Doubts/denials: ex: I doubt he'll be here.
  6. Ojalá (“Hopefully/I wish”): This actually comes from Arabic word which means "God willing". ex: God willing, he arrives on time.

Link (Spanish Tutor) =>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRvXpo45oHw

RULES for Subjunctive:

• There are always 2 subjects in Subjunctive, and they are different (may be same too). ex: I'm happy you are here => First subject is "I" and other subject is "you".
• Presence of "that" is implied in all subjunctive sentences. When translating, we use "que" for "that" in an all Subjunctive forms. ex: We want you to cook => We want (that) you cook. Here "that" is hidden but needed in Spanish translation. Sometimes, we also use few other words as although (aunque), unless (a no ser que), so that (a fin de que), etc depending on the sentence. It's important to use one of these connecting words.
• As mentioned above, we conjugate verb in the subordinate clause only to it's Subjunctive form.. The main clause which is WEIRDO still follows the normal conjugation table for verb in there.  ex: I hope he arrives early => here "hope" being in the main clause still follows normal conjugation table, while "arrives" being in subordinate clause gets conjugated as per the subjunctive table below. However this rule is true only for most common "Present Subjunctive form". Other forms may have the main clause transformed to subjunctive forms.
• Conjugation tables are really simple. Subjunctive mood have present, past and future tenses in perfect and imperfect forms => Total 6 conjugation tables (see in verb section). They have diff conjugation table for 6 tenses, but only the "present subjunctive" is the one that is used most often. So, just learn that.

Below are the conjugation table for all 3 tenses in Perfect and Imperfect forms.

More detailed info for all 6 forms => https://www.spanishdict.com/guide/spanish-subjunctive

Present/Past/Future (Regular) forms:

1. Present Subjunctive: This  is present perfect form. ex: => I’m sorry (that) they have to leave. Rule is really simple => We just treat -ar verb as -er/-ir verb, and treat -er/-ir verb as -ar verb for conjugation purpose. 

Irregular verb Conjugation: For irregular verbs, the stem is usually taken from 1st person "yo" form, and then -e/-a, -es/-as, etc are conjugated. Imp to note that this first person singular stem is used for all 6 entries of table above.

• tener => yo form is tengo. So, stem teng is used for all forms of subjunctive. Ex: tenga, tengas, tenga, tengamos, tengáis, tengan. We don't use form of tienas or tiena for 2nd, 3rd person as "tien" is not the stem for subjunctive forms.
• hacer => yo form is hago, so stem is hag. Ex: haga, hagas, haga...
• decir (to say): yo form is digo, so stem is "dig". Ex: diga, digas, diga, digamos, digáis, digan.
• There are only 6 irregular verbs which don't follow the above rule: Remember it as DISHES => Dar (dé, des,,,), Ir (vaya, vayas,..), Saber (sepa, sepas,..), Haber (haya, hayas,..), Estar (esté, estés,..), Ser (sea, seas, ..)
  • dar (to give): dé, des,  dé, demos, deis, den
  • ir (to go) => vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayais, vayan
  • saber => sepa, sepas, sepa, sepamos, sepais, sepan
  • haber => haya, hayas, haya, hayamos, hayais, hayan
  • estar( to be): esté, estés, esté, estemos, esteis, esten
  • ser (to be): sea, seas, sea, seamos, seais, sean

ex:

• I hope (that) he arrives early => Espero que él llegue temprano (instead of "él llega", we use subjunctive form from above table)
• We hope that you cook well => Esperamos que cocines bien.
• I want you to clean the bathroom. => it's equiv to = I want that you clean the bathroom => Yo quiero que tú limpies el baño.
• I doubt that he has my phone number => Dudo que él tenga mi número de teléfono.
• I hope to God he remembers our anniversary => ¡Ojalá que recuerde nuestro aniversario!

2. Imperfect (past) Subjunctive: This  is past subj form, and often refers to a previous experience, but can also refer to unlikely events or possibilities. ex: I wanted you to come to my party => Here past form is in the first clause, so 1st clause is the one that gets the subjunctive conjugation ??

Verb conjugation: To find the conjugation, we get the stem from 3rd person plural of simple past tense of verb (which ends in -aron/-ieron), remove the -ron and replace it with -ra or -se (-ra is more common). 1st person plural has an accent to stress on a or e just preceeding the amos. These verbs look same as future form of verb, but they are used as past tense here.

• hablar => past perfect 3rd person plural is hablaron. remove -aron and replace with -ra, it becomes hablara, hablaras, hablara, habláramos, hablaraéis, hablaran. (or hablase, hablases,...)
• hacer => past perfect 3rd person plural is hicieron. remove -ieron and replace with -ra, it becomes hiciera, hicieras, hiciera, hiciéramos, hicieraéis, hicieran. (or hiciese, hicieses,...)

ex: If I were you, I wouldn’t do it => Si yo fuera tú, no lo haría => Here subjunctive conjugation is for 1st clause, fueron is replaced with subj conjugation feura.

2. Past Perfect Subjunctive: This  is past perfect form and is commonly used to talk about past hypotheticals, conditionals, and past actions preceding other past actions. ex: Mom believed that you had cleaned the room => here "had cleaned" implies past perfect.

The past perfect subjunctive is formed with the imperfect subjunctive of the verb "Haber" and a "past participle" => Stem for haber is hubier, so subjunctive conjugation are hubiera, hubieras, hubiera.... So form is hubiera + Past Participle. Instead of hubier as the stem, an alternative stem "hubies" is also used, i.e hubiese, hubieses, ...,  though hubiera forms are more common

ex: I wish I had known => Ojalá que hubiera/hubiese sabido.

Imperative Mood of Verbs used to give commands: Many times,we use verbs to command someone to do something. These are called Imperative mood of the verb (mandatos in spanish means commands which is like "to mandate something"). For request, permission, etc, we use Imperative mood, though WEIRDO implies Subjunctive mood for request is used too. ex: open the letter. Here "you" is implied, as we always give command to someone else "you open the letter".

So, we use 2nd/3rd person form of the verb in this context (2nd person is used if commanding someone younger, friend, etc. 3rd person is used if commanding someone elder, friend, stranger, etc to give respect to the person). Depending on whether it's affirmative cmd (you do this) vs negative cmd (you do NOT do this), we change the verb ending in a different way than what we do for present tense transformation of these verbs. For almost all cases, we use subjunctive conjugation of verb, except for 2nd person singular affirmative cmd.

Video by Spanish Tutor (lesson 54) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UnO5khpi4

RULES: We flip the verbs in most cases to indicate it's a cmd.

• For Affirmative commands (i.e cmds of form "Do this"), there are 2 types => indicative and subjunctive form:
  • tú form (informal): For giving cmds to children, other people who are below you, we use "tú" form. We use the "3rd person singular indicative form". This is the only case where indicative verb is used. In all the other case below, subjunctive verbs are used. Think of it this way => When we give affirmative cmd, we want to be polite, so use 3rd person usted form (instead of 2nd person). 2nd person form (with -s at the end) is gone for affirmative cmds.
  • usted form (formal): For giving cmds to your friend, seniors, etc, we use the more respectable "usted form". We use the subjunctive form. So, the 3rd person affirmative form for hablar will be hable (subjunctive form). 
  • We (1st person plural): This is for cases when we order ourselves, ex: Let's eat. We are strictly not commanding, but it's similar to a cmd. Here, we use subjunctive verb for transformation purpose (similar to usted form above).
• For Negative commands (i.e. cmds of form "Do NOT do this"). There is only 1 type => subjunctive form
  • For all persons (1st/2nd/3rd), we use only one form => the subjunctive form. So, the 2nd person form for hablar will be hables.
• Irregular verbs: There are only 8 irregular verbs which have don't follow the rule above (seems to be irregular for affirmative tú forms only). These are "ven di sal haz ten ve pon se", which you can remember by thinking, "Vin DieSel Has Ten WeaPonS, eh?"  => Ven DiSal Haz Ten VePonS eh.
  • ser (to be) => As expected, Subjunctive tú form is seas, while usted form is sea/sean. But it's affirmative tú form is sé (NOT eres), which is irregular as we saw above.
    
    • Positive: Be kind => sé amable ( tú form).
    • Negative: Don't be selfish! => ¡No seas egoísta!
  • decir (to say): As expected, Subjunctive tú form is digas, while usted form is "diga/digan" (used for all except 2nd person affirmative cmd). However Indicative tú form (used for 2nd person affirmative cmd) is "di" (should have been dices based on Indicative present).

   

Table form for Affirmative/Negative cmds:

Remember: All verbs are subjunctive form except 2nd person Affirmative which is indicative (see green colored entry in table below).  If you want to keep it simple, always use the 3rd person usted form for giving cmds (don't use the 2nd person for giving cmds to someone else). Then all verbs are subjunctive (i.e flipped) and you don't have to worry about flipping or not flipping (remember: no -s at end of conjugating verb). This is also being more respectful as you are using usted form. It helps in plural case of "you all" as only usted form exists for this for people outside of spain (since 2nd person plural does not exist anywhere else in world). For affirmative, there's NEVER an "s" at end, while for negative cmds there may be an s at end (if tu form is used, otherwise for usted cmd, there is no s at end),

NOTE: When using 2nd/3rd person, it's hard to say which person form is being used. From the context, it's not clear whether tu or usted form is being used. I've seen a lot of conflicting info on how the 2nd/3rd form singular form is changed/not changed. Not sure which one is correct. Spanish translators give both kind of translations. However, in practice, tu form is more commonly used, since cmds are usually not given with respect (they are cmds, so be disrespectful :). The easiest way to give cmds is to just use 3rd person usted form. It's easier for us as explained above.

Ex:

• open the letter => 2 ways you can translate this => depending on whether you are saying this formally or informally.
  
  • 2nd person (tu form) => abre la carta (3rd person indicative form of abrir is used for tu form, which is abre). It's is used when we want to be informal.
  • 3rd person (usted form) => abra la carta (3rd person subjunctiv form of abrir is used for usted form, which is abra). It's used formally to give respect to someone.
• buy the car => compra el carro (again, this is for "tu" informal order)
• Eat => Come (informal tú form for children), Coma (formal usted form for seniors). Coman (formal, but to a group of people). "Let's eat" => comamos (instead of comemos)
• Close the door => cierra la puerta (cerrar is stem changing verb since it has "e", which changes to ie => cierr as modified stem => 3rd person changes to cierra). Here we are using tu form to give cmd.
• Speak => habla (for informal, 2nd person. unflipped), hable (for formal, 3rd person. flipped). When saying this to group of people, we use hablan (informal) or hablen (formal)
  
  • Don't speak => No hables (Since it's negative cmd, we use 2nd person singular (flipped), which should be hablas, but it's treated as er verb, so hables)
• Write => Escribe (for informal, 2nd person unflipped), escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped).
  • Don't write => No escribas (for informal, 2nd person flipped), No escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped). Let's write => escribamos (instead of escribemos)
• Don't learn German => No aprendas aléman (for informal, 2nd person. instead of aprendes we do aprendas, as we treat it as ar verb)

Object Pronouns with cmds: When we use Object pronouns (regular or reflexive pronouns) with cmds (i.e Tell me), the pronoun needs to be attached to the verb for affirmative cmd (but not for negative cmd).

• IOP: Here IOP is added as suffix for Affirmative cmds only.
  • Affirmative:
    • ex: Tell me => Should be "Me diga/digan" (usted form), but instead it's combined into 1 word as "dígame/díganme". Accents added as we need these to make sure "di" is the one that is still emphasized while talking.
  • Negative:
    • Regular pronoun: ex: Do not Tell me => No me diga/digan (usted form, NOT combined as 1 word).
    • Reflexive pronoun: ex: Don't worry yourself => No se preocupa
• DOP+IOP: Same rule as above where IOP+DOP are added as suffix for Affirmative cmds only. Transform is verb+IOP+DOP (IOP is added first followed by DOP)
  • Affirmative: ex: Tell me it (Tell it to me) => Should be "Me lo diga/digan" (usted form), but instead it's combined into 1 word as "dígamelo/díganmelo". Accents added as we need these to make sure "di" is the one that is still emphasized while talking.
  • Negative: ex: Do not Tell it to me => No me lo diga/digan (usted form, NOT combined as 1 word)

 Permission/Requests: When Even though permissions are not really cmds, we use imperative for permissions, requests, etc.

• Dejar (To let or to leave): Here, when we say "Let him do ...", it implies "you let him do ...". you can be tú  or usted form, and depending on that, dejar will conjugate.
  • To let: This is most common usage of dejar where we politely ask for permission. ex: Let me go/speak => déjame ir/hablar. Let me love you => déjame amarte. We used tú form here, which conjugates dejar to deja (3rd person unflipped). If it was usted form, then it would be déjeme (3rd person flipped) instead of déjame. Déjame seems to be most common though.
  • To leave: Dejar also means "to leave"or "to leave something somewhere". ex: Leave me alone => déjame solo OR leave me in peace => déjame en paz. I left the keys here => dejé las laavas aqui (NOT imperative).
  • To quit or abandon something: ex: Quit (leave) talking => ¡Deja de hablar! (tú form). ex: I have to quit (left) smoking => yo tengo que dejar de fumar. One popular phrase is "dejarse llevar" => to let oneself go (reflexive form, NOT imperative)