There are many common irregular verbs and the subjunctive is often responsible for the use of words like "vengas", "sea", "diera", "sepas", "quepa", etc. Generally speaking we put the endings of -er verbs onto the end of -ar verbs and the -ar verbs take the endings which are normally on - er and -ir verbs. If you are a beginner than this may be too complex for you although you should be aware that the subjunctive exists, so that when someone says "espero que sepas lo que haces" (I hope you know what you are doing) you will know why they didn't say "espero que sabes" Note: the subordinate clause is the bit that comes after the "que" "no creo que lo compren" (I don't think that they'll buy it) In the subordinate clause is not a reality or doubtful (because it hasn't happened yet) e.g. Other common examples in this category are:- "es una lástima que" (it's a pity that), "me sorprende que" (it surprises me that")Īnother big use of the subjunctive is in subordinate clauses where there is a change of subject if the event "me alegro que trabaj e aquí" (I'm glad that she works here).
It can be a way to show that the speaker is reacting emotionally to the event referred to. Before we published this we got Sole, our friend from the university of Granada to check our text to make sure we didn't "meter la pata" (slip up, make a mistake).
After using the subjunctive of "Saber" in a complex sentence correctly I still feel as if I have passed through the linguistic equivalent of white water rafting. My Spanish is not too bad but I still have problems with it. After all this time doing the word of the month we have eventually decided to tackle the thorny problem of the subjunctive.