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Spanish subjunctives don’t have to be hard! Let’s learn the most common uses of Spanish subjunctives to indicate intention. We’ll get lots of practice using the subjunctives of Ser and Estar in a variety of sentences.
Junk time! Let’s learn subjunctives.
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Subjunctives intimidate a lot of Spanish learners, but they don’t have to. Subjunctives are some of the most important verb conjugations for expressing abstract ideas in Spanish. And they’re actually not that hard if you simply learn the most common sentence templates that use them. In fact, we’re already familiar with some of these sentence templates! Back in Episode 11 we talked about expressing abstract concepts in Spanish, such as intentions and reactions, using que phrases, such as “I’d prefer que they do it by this afternoon.” Watch for those sentence templates to come back this week.
First though, let’s just learn the subjunctive forms of Ser and Estar, using our memory palaces. We’ve already learned the present tense and past tense of Ser and Estar. In each case, the scene was in a particular part of the business. The present tense was in the main area in the front where people first arrive at the Ser carnival or the Estar magic shop. The past tense was in a closed off area, the bouncy house in the case of Ser and the wand closet in the case of Estar.
The subjunctive is yet another set of forms to learn for each of these verbs, and we’ll learn these forms in a third place in each business. These conjugations will take place in the back behind these businesses, a place we call the “junk area”. This is where people might throw trash, and the stressed syllable “junk” represents “subJUNCtive”.
First of all, in the back alley behind the Ser carnival house, a raccoon sits in a junk pile. It’s eating something that looks like trash, and when it sees us arrive, it lifts whatever it is up, as if to offer it to us, and it shouts, “say ah!” It’s pretty creepy. But this represents the word sea. The stress is on “se”, but it’s pronounced like “say ah”.
So the words we’re learning here are:
I sea
he/she/it/usted sea
you seas
they sean
we seamos
(Note that just like in the past tense, there are two forms that are identical. The first person, “I be”, and the third person, “he she or it be”, are exactly the same; they’re both sea.)
What do these words mean? We’ve already learned the present and the past tense, so why do we need another tense?
These words mean something like “be”, as in “I be”, “she be”, “you be”, or “they be”. And they’re typically used to express some sort of intention.
Intention means we want something to be the case. We’re not necessarily saying that it is or isn’t the case; we’re expressing an intention that it be the case.
We actually use the subjunctive mood in English as well, but not as often in modern English as we used to use it, and not nearly as often as it happens in Spanish. Check out this sentence:
I recommend that you be his friend.
I recommend que seas his friend.
Recomiendo que seas su amigo.
We don’t usually say “I recommend that you are his friend”; the “you be” in this context represents that whether or not you’re currently his friend, I recommend that you be his friend.
This sentence structure doesn’t happen much in English except in the case of the word “recommend”. But in Spanish, it happens pretty much any time you indicate one person’s intention for another person.
Here’s another example:
I hope that she be our friend.
I hope que ella sea our friend.
Espero que ella sea nuestra amiga.
In this case, in English, we would simply use the standard “I hope that she is”. But in Spanish, we have the verb “hope” indicating some sort of intention, so the second sentence (or clause) that comes after que is going to be subjunctive.
In a nutshell, there are some situations that typically trigger the subjunctive. And in general, in technical terms, you can expect this to happen any time there are two clauses being connected by que where an intention is being expressed by the first clause, about what’s happening in the second clause. In this case, the first clause is “I hope”, which indicates intention. The second clause is “she be our friend”, which is what the intention is about. That’s where the subjunctive will be.
I’m about to list some sentences in English. See if you can predict whether the first verb is expressing intention and whether the second verb would therefore be in the subjunctive mood.
I think that they are my friends.
No, this won’t be subjunctive, because this is not an intention. So this will be:
I think que son my amigos.
Creo que son mis amigos.
Next:
I recommend that you be his teacher.
Yes, a recommendation is considered an intention. So this will be subjunctive, specifically seas.
I recommend que seas his teacher.
Recomiendo que seas su maestro.
Next:
I ask that she be my friend.
Yes, asking someone to do something or be something is a type of intention. So this is:
I ask que ella sea my amiga.
Le pido que ella sea mi amiga.
How about:
You see that he is not your student.
No, this is just an observation, not an intention. So we have:
You see que él no es your student.
Ves que él no es tu estudiante.
Next:
They intend that we be students.
Yes, of course, this is an intention. Do you remember what the subjunctive form for “we be” is? …it’s seamos. So this is:
They intend que seamos students.
Quieren que seamos estudiantes.
Try this next one, and see how much of it you can translate into Spanish:
He hopes that she is the winner.
Él hopes que ella sea la winner.
Él espera que ella sea la ganadora.
This will become more natural over time. If you’re not getting this perfect, that’s OK; you’ll do pretty well for now if you just remember that “hope” and “recommend” trigger the subjunctive, and be prepared for some other uses such as “wish”, “ask”, or “desire”. We’ll cover some more common uses of the subjunctive soon.
Next let’s learn the subjunctive forms of Estar. They’re actually very easy because they all share the stressed syllable “stay”. So imagine that behind the magic shop, there’s a mud pile full of junk. The owner of the store tells you and your friends, “I want you all to stay here for a second.” So you all sit down cross-legged in the mud, and you get stuck. The mud is sticky and dries to you like cement, and now you’re stuck here and have to stay, like she told you, whether you want to or not. So the stress is “stay”, and here are the words:
I esté
he/she/it/usted esté
you estés
they estén
we estemos
So try this out. How would you say:
I recommend that you be here.
I recommend que estés aquí.
Recomiendo que estés aquí.
Or how about:
I hope that she is at the house.
I hope que ella esté en la casa.
Espero que ella esté en la casa.
We’ve learned a lot of words at this point, so we’re going to do a mini-quiz that doesn’t involve sentences. Instead, we’re going to drill on our conjugations to make sure that you can come up with an individual verb form on the spot. As we do this, make sure to follow a the three-part process: First, determine whether it’s Ser or Estar, second determine the tense or mood (present, past, or subjunctive) which tells you which scene to visit in your memory, and then finally choose the right person in the scene, which will give you the right conjugation.
For your first one, the verb is Ser… the place is the past tense… the person is the pandas.
eran
Next, Estar… subjunctive… “he”.
esté
Ser… present tense… usted.
es
Estar… present tense… you (informal).
estás
Ser… subjunctive… “they”.
sean
Estar… subjunctive… “we”.
estemos
Estar… past tense… “I”.
estaba
OK, now let’s try this in some simple sentence examples. In each case, don’t worry about the other words in the sentence; ONLY focus on the “to be” word. And just like we did just now, you should first determine which verb to choose; then, choose whether it’s present, past, or subjunctive; then pick the right conjugation. Always do it in that order.
They recommend that I be her friend.
They recommend that I sea her friend.
I hope that they are at the house.
I hope that they estén at the house.
I know that you are my friend.
I know that you eres my friend.
She knows that we were friends.
She knows that we éramos friends.
She asks that they be students.
She asks that they sean students.
They intend that I be at home.
They intend that I esté at home.
He hopes that we are at the place.
He hopes that we estemos at the place.
I think that they are at school.
I think that they están at school.
I saw that he was here.
I saw that he estaba here.
I intend that you be my teacher.
I intend that you seas my teacher.
Now some of these sentences sound very strange in English when structured this way. In normal speech, I wouldn’t say “I intend that you be my teacher”; I would instead say “I intend for you to be my teacher.” But that’s a sentence structure that simply doesn’t happen in Spanish. Any time someone has an intention for someone else, you’ll use a que phrase in the middle.
If you dissect these sentences, we end up with basically two sentences or clauses, separated by the conjunction que, each of which has a verb. The first half is expressing some sort of intention with its verb, for example “intend”, and the second clause will have a subjunctive as its verb, for example seas.
But in English, we have another sentence structure that expresses intention. Check out this sentence:
We want you to be a doctor.
This is me intending that you be a doctor. But instead of “you be”, I’ve used “you to be”.
But this sentence structure doesn’t work in Spanish. It LOOKS like the “to be” there should simply be the word “ser”: “We want you ser a doctor.” But that sentence structure doesn’t work in Spanish. What we’re really saying here is, “We want that you be a doctor”, or “We want que seas doctor.”
Queremos que seas doctor.
This takes a bit of practice because we’re so used to structuring sentences in our own way. For example, here are two versions of the same English sentence:
I hope that he is a doctor.
I hope for him to be a doctor.
In Spanish, both of these sentences would simply be:
I hope que él sea doctor.
Or how about:
My parents want me to be a good student.
This would change to:
My parents want that I be a good student.
My parents want que yo sea a good student.
One mnemonic that might be helpful is to imagine the raccoon behind the Ser carnival telling you: “I want that you say ah!” Again, creepy and weird, but very memorable.
Let’s practice this a bit with both Ser and Estar examples. Remember that you can’t say things like “him to be” or “you to be” in Spanish; you would instead say “that he be” or “that you be”. In each case, first choose whether to use Ser or Estar, and then choose the right conjugation based on that.
I want the boys to be friends.
I want que the boys sean friends.
Quiero que los chicos sean amigos.
I want him to be here.
I want que él esté aquí.
Quiero que él esté aquí.
They want me to be a lawyer.
They want que yo sea lawyer.
Quieren que yo sea abogado.
[formal] I want you to be my teacher.
I want que usted sea my teacher.
Quiero que usted sea mi maestro.
I want you to be here.
I want que estés aquí.
Quiero que estés aquí.
We don’t want them to be at the place.
Nosotros no want que estén en el lugar.
Nosotros no queremos que estén en el lugar.
We’re not going to have a very big final quiz today, because right now we have a couple of super important things to prioritize. The first is that you absolutely need to be able to recall all of your conjugations from memory flawlessly. So an assignment we have all of our students do at this point is to draw a map with all of your conjugations of both Ser and Estar. At this point that’s six total scenes and over 25 distinct words.
And then, of course, it’s important to practice choosing whether or not to use a subjunctive based on the sentence that the word is in. So to wrap up this episode, I’m going to present most of the sentences that we used earlier in the episode, but if you’re not yet confident with all your conjugations, don’t try to come up with all your Spanish for these; instead, the only thing you should try to predict is whether or not to use a subjunctive.
And of course, remember that you can always get more practice with this using the free materials here.
We want you to be a doctor.
We want que seas doctor.
Queremos que seas doctor.
I ask that she be my friend.
I ask que ella sea my amiga.
Le pido que ella sea mi amiga.
I hope that they(m) are at the house.
I hope que ellos estén en la casa.
Espero que ellos estén en la casa.
He hopes that she is the winner.
Él hopes que ella sea la winner.
Él espera que ella sea la ganadora.
I want him to be better.
I want que él esté aquí.
Quiero que él esté aquí.
She knows that we were friends(f).
She knows que éramos amigas.
Sabe que éramos amigas.
I think that they are in school.
I think que están en school.
Creo que están en la escuela.
She asks that they(f) be students.
She asks que ellas sean students.
Les pide que sean estudiantes.
You see that he is not your student.
You see que él no es your student.
Ves que él no es tu estudiante.
I want you to be here.
I want que estés aquí.
Quiero que estés aquí.
[formal] I want you to be my teacher.
I want que usted sea my teacher.
Quiero que usted sea mi maestro.
We don’t want them to be at the place.
Nosotros no want que estén en el lugar.
Nosotros no queremos que estén en el lugar.
They want me to be a lawyer.
They want que yo sea lawyer.
Quieren que yo sea abogado.
I saw that he was here.
I saw que él estaba aquí.
Vi que él estaba aquí.
I think that they are my friends.
I think que son my amigos.
Creo que son mis amigos.
He hopes that we are at the place.
He hopes que estemos en el lugar.
Espera que estemos en el lugar.
I know that you are my friend(m).
I know que tú eres my amigo.
Sé que tú eres mi amigo.
For more practice with any of this, access the online flashcards for free here.
Tomorrow we’ll learn some more things we can do with these subjunctives and then the rest of this week will be a lot of easier work with simpler vocabulary.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraft Spanish. Music for this episode was provided by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today using our free course — join here.
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