3.12.1 The past subjunctive, forms

Just like the indicative exists in all three time frames (past, present, future), the subjunctive doesn’t only exist in the present, it also has a commonly used form in the past tense.  In the next chapter we’ll discuss some extra uses that the past subjunctive has and we’ll talk about why the future subjunctive died out.  In the current chapter we’ll review the form of the past subjunctive and look at its uses in adjective and noun clauses.

The past subjunctive’s form is based on the ellos/ellas/ustedes conjugation of the preterite.  There are no new irregular conjugations.  So if you know the preterite form of any given verb, you can conjugate it in the past subjunctive.  We all know that there are many irregulars in the preterite but once you’ve mastered those, you’ve got your past subjunctive forms down!  You can refer back to the preterite chapter if you need help remembering the irregularities from that conjugation.

The past subjunctive also has two forms, one that ends in -ra and one that ends in -se.  There are historical differences between these forms but for the majority of the Spanish speaking world, they are synonyms today.  You might hear native speakers only use one or the other or you may also hear native speakers that interchange between the two forms. Lots of native speakers use one form more than the other but will sometimes vary them to make a text less repetitive.

You can learn to produce either form, neither is wrong or right.  However, since both are used all around the Spanish speaking world, you should be able to recognize both as conjugations of the past subjunctive.  And, both forms do use the ellos/ellas/ustedes form as the basis for the conjugation of the verb.

In this chart we’ll use three verbs that are usually regular: hablar, comer, abrir and one that is always irregular, tener to illustrate who to conjugate the past subjunctive.

And this is the same chart with the verbs conjugated in the -se form.