Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Relative clauses aftercualquiera, dondequiera, quienquiera

Spanish has a set of indefinite expressions ending in -quiera, of which only

cualquiera ‘whatever/whichever’, dondequiera ‘wherever’ and quienquiera

‘whoever’ have any currency outside literary contexts.

The remaining forms comoquiera ‘however’ and cuandoquiera ‘whenever’

are now replaced by comoand cuando(see 12.1.4.2).

Relative clauses following cualquiera (used as a pronoun) and quienquiera

are invariably in the subjunctive.

Relative clauses following dondequierawill be in the indicativeif the refer-

ence is to past or habitual occurrences, and in the subjunctive if the

reference is to unknown or future occurrences and locations:

quienquiera que sea responsable

whoever is/may be to blame

cualquiera que sea su decisión

whatever his decision is/may be

dondequiera que usted se encuentre

wherever you are/may be

dondequiera que ella iba

wherever she went

Relative clauses afterpor (muy)and por mucho

The phrases por (muy)+ adjective or adverb and por+ mucho/a/os/as(or

más) + noun or verb can be used with a relative clause to convey the idea

expressed in English by ‘however (much/many)’ + clause, e.g. ‘However

much I asked him’.

In Spanish this construction generally takes the subjunctiveif the reference

is to present or future situations and the indicativeif the reference is to

habitual or past events:

por (muy) caro que sea however expensive it is

por mucho que grites however much you shout

por mucho que estudió however hard he studied

por muchos trofeos que ganen however many cups they win

12.1.4.4

12.1.4.3^1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

12

Subjunctive
mood

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