Capítulo 2: Marketing
2.7.1: Gramática-modos en inglés y español
The subjunctive mood in Spanish expresses subjectivity. When you use the subjunctive mood you are communicating to your listener that what you’re saying is influenced by your thoughts, opinions, and emotions. It’s also a way to express that what you’re talking about is in the future and hasn’t happened yet. It is impossible to be certain about things that are going to happen in the future. We can be certain about our plans, but can’t control whether or not traffic lets us get somewhere on time, for example.
The subjunctive in Spanish occurs in several constructions. First, it can be used as an exhortation (sort of a command). This looks like this:
- ¡Que venga ella! Let her come!
- ¡Que haya paz! Let there be peace!
- !Que terminemos ya! Let’s finish now!
As you can see, these constructions are translated as sentences starting with “let” in English. This is not the subjunctive, it’s an imperative (command) form. In both languages, these are expressing wishes without using a wishing verb. This is one of the few uses of the subjunctive in Spanish that doesn’t require the presence of a second verb.
